Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1854-11-11
SS9.I71 OF
159,7O1 81

Leaving on hand on 30th Sep
TENDER, 1854, after paying
all expenses, both ordinary
and extraordinary, clear
balance of $1S,7OS a
Being more than per cent on the capital stock
of the Company; but if we exclude from the est
mate both receipts and expenditures of an extraor
binary character it will be that the receipts
from the transportation of
Freight, passengers and mail during the
year have been $l13,923 II
Ordinary current expenses as above TO,530 96
Leaving profit the years business of sos, 1872 81
Being than l04 per cent. the capital stock.
Out of the net proceeds of the years operations
the Board of Directors have appropriated $4,000 to
the sinking fund.- making that fund amount TO So O0O
all of which is invested in N. c. State Bonds bearing
per cent interest," and declared dividend of Sc, 80
per share The charter of the Company requiring
that individuals shall pay up and expend in the
Road $500 600 before the Governor is authorized to
convey the Road to the Company, and a small loss
having occurred in the sale of stock subscribed by
defaulting Stockholders, which we must make up be-
fore get q conveyance of the Read the
Board ordered 80 cents per share to be withheld out
of the dividend in all stock owned by others than
the State, and placed to the credit of the stock
count The balance of the net earnings will be ex-
pended on the Road Much remains to be done,
which if the Capital Stock had been sufficient to
complete the Road, would not have been left to alb
sorb a portion of the annual earnings.
AS the Stockholders DO not possess the means of
judging whether the affairs of the Company have
been economically managed, except by comparing
our expenditures with those of other Roads, ia
BILE is herewith presented exhibiting the ratio be-
tween the receipts and expenditures in all the Rail-
roads whose returns have been accessible In
complete the table necessarily is, it embraces
many of the best managed Roads in every section
of the United States. Many of those in the list
receive $237 per mile for carrying the Mail whilst
we have to incur precisely the same expense in car
rying it for 500. All of them are great passenger
Roads, carrying thousands at an expense not sensi
bly, greater than we have to incur in carrying hun
dreds. Yet not one of them has been operated for
nearly small per cent. of their receipts
has been; for, making comparison between our re-
ceipts and expenses, entitled to credit for
having loaded and hauled to the GAINESVILLE juno
ture 800 loads of stills free of charge, by which
the expenses have been largely increased, whilst
nothing has been added to the receipts; and we have
hauled for connecting Roads 1000 tons Railroad iron
for price which, in the opinion of the Directors
expressed in our last annual report, barely pro-
tects us from loss" To operate a Railroad for
$7O0 per mile and 40 per cent of its receipts is be-
eved to be unparalleled in the history of such works.
When you subscribed to the stock of the Compa-
ny few of you thought that its receipts could reach
10000, and perhaps not one of you expected
dividend your stock before the completion of the
North Carolina Road Not a mile of that Road in
connection with US is yet in operation, and your
ceipts have nearly reached $175 00O-you have re-
ceived in dividends over per cent and have ex-
pended large sum on the property out of its cur
w
to mention this fact with view to boast the merits
and success of our management, we hope we may
be permitted to point to it at this peculiar uncture
as showing the capability of our State of improve
nent by Railroads and other facilities for communi
cation. In portion of North Carolina had the
soil been completely robbed of its fertility by
though.less cultivation than along the line of
Road. In no portion of the State were the proprie
tors of land more completely destitute of the
of making manures at homo of facilities for pro-
curing them from abroad. Since the Railroad has
furnished them the means of procuring from abroad
the cheapest and best manures and of getting their
crops market the farmers longer be thrift
less. Hence, in great measure, results
cess. The country and the Road are mutually en-
riching each other, and must continue to do so in
an increasing ratio in every succeeding year. The
same effect must follow in a greater or less degree
on the building a Railroad in any part of North
Carolina where nature has not made the soil bar
rem to be incapable of improvement.
The success which has attended our operations
during the past year having been attained without
aid from any of interior connections now in pro-
gress of construction, cannot too strongly rec
ommend a perseverance in the policy recommended
in our last annual report, of nourishing and build
ing up our home business as the main source to
which the Company must look for its prosperity,
it is the only reliable basis upon which any Railroad
can permanently rest. Whilst this is unquestiona-
bly, sound policy, looking to the interest of your
selves and the State as Stockholders, it will at the
same time justify the liberal outlay the Road
made by the State. Its object in making the expen-
dture was not merely to speculate for dividends but
to increase the producing capacity of its people and
their lands Thus far you have justified the expen-
dture made on your Road, and indicated the great
cause of internal improvement by the enhanced
value of real estate, and the increased productions
in its vicinity. sa#