The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-08-02 00:00:00

REPORT

The receipts of the Railway for the half-year just ended
are as follows :
Coaching Carriages, Horses, Parcels, and
Mails .
Goods, Live Stock, and Coals
Rents, and Interest on Bank Account, &c

£161,358 15 8
43,999 2 4

2,277 1G 7

£207,635 14 7

It could scarcely be expected that the revenue would
remain altogether unaffected by the increased commercial
depression of the last six months, weighing, as it has done,
with peculiar severity on the districts intersected by the
railway ; and it will consequently be seen that the return of
traffic for the half-year is less than that of the correspond-
ing period of last year by a sum of £4,349 15s. 6d, the
difference arising entirely from a diminution in the carriage
of goods. The Manchester traffic has especially suffered in
all its branches, and to an extent nearly double the above
deficiency, thus exhibiting a positive increase in those de-
partments of the traffic to which the company must now
mainly look for its future profits.
The total expenditure of the half-year does not exeeed
that of the corresponding period, although a new item of
£2,100 2s. 3d. appears in the present accounts for mainte-
nance of way on the Chester and Crewe branch. Several
new engines, carriages, and waggons have also been added
to the stock of the respective departments, which are debited
in the current expenses, and the directors have the satisfac-
tion to state, that their material of every description has
been improved, and is in the best working condition.
The net profit for the half-year is therefore £113,661 12s Bd,
to which must be added the reserve fund, amounting with
interest to £8,826 Os. 4d., making a total of £122,487 13s. Od.
Theincome tax, amounting to £1,826 18s. Ild., becoming
payable to government, will first have to be deducted for the
three months ending 30th June; and the directors, for the
reason given by them on the last occasion of their meeting
the proprietors, have again to advise that the sum of
£5,000 be placed to the fund for the depreciation and renewal
of engines and other stock. From the balance they bare
now to recommend that a dividend•of £5 per cent. be de-
dared, amounting to £110,165, leaving, after the above
deductions the sum of £5,495 14s. Id. to be carried to the
credit of the reserved fund, and applicable to future divi-
dends. The depreciation fund, with the above appropriation,
will consequently be with interest £10,040 7s. 6d.
The nett receipt from Sunday travelling is 10s. per share
of £lOO.

The extensive workshops at Crewe being nearly ready for
occupation, the company's establishment for repairing stock
will shortly be removed there; and the directors are led to
believe that the concentration and system which will then
be obtained, will tend materially to reduce the future expen-
diture, and still further increase the efficiency of the various
departments. The directors have great pleasure in stating,
that the mode they adopted for raising £lOOO towards the
erection of a church at Crewe appears to have been satisfac-
tory, since the portion of that sum which has been claimed
only amounts to £5 17s. 3d.

In their last report the directors alluded briefly to the
anticipated opening of the Manchester and Birmingham
Railway, and stated that their attention was directed to the
working of the portion of line between Crewe and Birming-
ham. In the discussions which necessarily arose with the
Manchester and Birmingham company relative to the con-
duct of their traffic over the Grand Junction Line, a differ-
ence of opinion upon points which your directors considered
of vital interest has for some time existed; as, however, the
board trust that they are now happily removed, it is unneces-
sary to dwell upon them at length. It may be sufficient to
mention generally that, impressed with the importance of
having the united traffic of the two lines worked together
south of Crewe, both as a measure of public safety and
economy to the respective companies, your directors have,
from their first entrance upon negotiations, continued to
press this position as the basis of an amicable settlement.
The Manchester and Birmingham Company have acqui-
esced in this arrangement, and the amount of remuneration
to be paid to this company by the Manchester and Birming-
ham Company for performing this service has been satisfac-
torily settled. Your directors have only further to inform
the proprietors, that they have no doubt all minor points will
be mutually adjusted, without the necessity of having re-
course to arbitration; and they consider themselves justified
in stating, that the arrangement is one which must tend to
the advantage of the Manchester and Birmingham Company,
while it relieves both companies of a portion of their ex-
penses, and this company of the very heavy responsibility
which would have attached to them, had they, under the
peculiar circumstances of the case, encouraged the traffic of
the two companies being separately carried on.
In consequence of the relinquishment of the Manchester
traffic, a considerable reduction will be made in the working
expenses ; but the directors regret that it will be necessary,
at the same time, to revise the rates of carriage and fares on
the line, and thus protect the company from the effect of
this abstraction from their present traffic. The proprietors
will bear in mind, that in August, 1839, while the Manches-
ter and Birmingham Extension Bill was still pending, they
were informed that any division of the traffic between two
companies would inevitably be the means of compelling the
public to pay an increased price for the same accommodation,
since it has only been by the great amount of its traffic that
the Grand Junction Company has been enabled to conduct
its business hitherto so economically to the proprietors, and,
at the same time, so cheaply to the public. That, after these
measures are adopted, a loss will still lse experienced until a
considerable increase shall take place in the Manchester
traffic, and consequently in the toll payable to this company,
the directors do not wish to conceal, but they think it right
to state to the meeting that, having carefully considered
their altered position, they see no cause to apprehend that
the dividends of the Grand Junction Company will he less
than 10 per cent. within the year, while they entertain a
confident hope that they will exceed this amount.
The subject of a projected extension of the line of railway
from Lancaster to Edinburgh and Glasgow has been alluded
to in former reports ; and the directors have the satisfaction
to inform the meeting, that the surveys and plans of the
whole line have been completed, the parliamentary notices
lodged, and the estimates carefully prepared by Mr. Locke,
his very favourable report is now in the press, and will
shortly be laid before the public.
The following gentlemen, viz.—Mr. Grant, Mr. Bold, and
Mr. Walker, retire from the direction on the present occa-
sion ; and as, by act of parliament, they are ineligible for a
re-election, it will now rest with the proprietors to select
three directors to supply their places at the board.

The receipts on Capital Account to 30th
June, 1842, were
The expenditure £2,280,590 3 0
Balance in Bankers' hands £5,902 6 3 _

2,286,492 9 3

The Total Receipts for the Half-year were 207,635 14 7
„ Expenditure . • • 93,974 111

£113,661 12 8

X 113,661 12 8
8,826 0 4

£122,187 10 0

6826 IS 11

£115,660 14 1