The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-02-04 00:00:00

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ter increase of receipt's that, those of
any tOrmer half year, the gross income being £241,816 4s. 6d
The expenses for the same period were £104,088 is
leaving a nett balance of profit of £136,427 16s. 10d
ex ".

iditure for the present half year are included, the entire
working expenses of the Chester and Crewe branch, with two
additional trains ordered by the postoffice, while only one
quarter's expenditure under this head was incurred in the cor-
responding ball year, and the maintenance of v$ ay, over these
21 miles,forms an entirely new charge in the present accounts.
An increase in the cost of locomotive power has taken place,
the necessary result of 32,000 miles of additional duty during
the half year, and, in consequence also, of four new engines
and eleven tenders having been added to the stock. With
these exceptions, the ratio of expense to the receipts is again
less. The directors announced that they had abandoned the
publication of comparative valuations of stock, convinced of
its unsoundness. They recommended that a certain sum be
periodically laid aside as a fund for the improvement of the
stock, and to meet that insensible, but sure decay, which is
perpetually going on, and which no care or expense can pre-
vent. The sum they proposed to appropriate on the present
occasion was £5,000. Adding to the profit of the half year,
£9,001 19s. 2d. as the reserve fund, we have a total of
£145,829 16s. From this the directors recommended a divi-

dend of 6 per cent. to be paid on the whole capital of the com-
pany, amounting to £132,198, but of the surplus of £13,631
165., the directors had set aside £5,000 for the depreciation
and renewal of stock, leaving the reserved fund £8,631 16s.
The nett receipt for Sunday travelling is 10s. 11d. per share
of £lOO. The propriety of paying the dividends quarterly, the
directors would not recommend at present. A reductioqiin
the short fares had been tried with doubtful success. 'ride
arrangements with the Manchester and Birmingham Com-
pany for the use of the line between Crewe and Birmingham
are completed. The returns on the Chester and Crewe
branch have fallen short of what was expected ; but the traffic
is improving, and hopes are entertained that it will ultimately
be a source of' profit. The attempt to carry out a line of
railway to connect England and Scotland by the west coast
has assumed a more important form since it was last
mentioned to the proprietors; and the directors, sensible of
the influence which the completion of such a railway would
exercise upon their interests, have, with other railway
companies similarly situated, subscribed to procure a parlia-
mentary survey of the line between Lancaster and Carlisle.
The report spoke most favourably of this project and its
prospects. At a future day it would be for the proprietors
to determine whether the Grand Junction Company should
not take a direct interest in the undertaking, as one that
could not fail to benefit their revenue materially, The re-
port then said—" Intimation has been sent to every pro-
prietor, that it is the intention of the directors to propose the
appropriation of a thousand pounds towards the erection of
a church at Crewe. The company's establishments for the
repairs of engines and carriages will shortly be removed there,
and some hundreds of men, with their families, will then be
deprived of their present opportunities of religious instruction,
and settled in a spot possessing provision only for its own
very limited population. In these circumstances the directors
consider they are performing their duty no less to the share-
holders than to the workmen who are dependent upon them,
in commending to your favourable judgment the motion of
which they had given notice. The amount per £lOO share
caused by the appropriation of £lOOO, for the above purpose,
would be about 10fd., and the directors are prepared to re-
commend, that any proprietor who may object to this appro-
priation should have the option of receving his proportion of
the amount."