Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-11-22

Company to meet the extraordinary de-
mands rendered necessary by the causes
above referred to. Although the rate OF
interest in Europe is much lower thar 1t
has been for some time past, unfortunately,
there is so great timidity, or rather distrust,
among foreign capitalists in regard to all
American securities, arising almost entirely
States, that for the present the negotiations
of Mr.. Bridgers have not been successful.
Similar applications on the part of some
of the most prominent Northern railway
companies, have met the same fate.
The connection of the Charlotte and
Rutherford Road and the Manchester Road
with the Road of this Company, by con-
tinuous line of railway across the two
branches of the Cape Fear river, and the
action of the Board of Directors in this
connection, is brought to the notice of the
Stockholders in this Report. The discon-
tinuance of the present ferry-boat connec-
ton, and the completion of an actual con-
nection by rail, will be an event over which
the travelling public will rejoice, and we
presume the Stockholders will cheerfully
ratify and confirm all that has been done
to secure an end so much to be desired by
all, and which must largely increase the
income of the Companies interested.
THE SUPERINTENDENT REPORT
commences by giving a detailed account of
the earnings and expenses of the Road
The financial statement for the year is given
as follows
ReceiptS and Expenditures.
The gross receipts for the year were SOIL 500 II
The expenditures for the same period
were. 356,247 70
Excess of receipts over expenditures, $3.50, 351 80
Of the above receipts about 100000
were from the sale of old material, which
makes the gross earnings of the Road about
$500, 900. There has been heavy outlay
for rolling stock, rendered necessary by the
wholesale destruction of engines and cars
about the time of the surrender of the
Confederate forces in this State.
The great want of the Road now is new
iron and other improvements of the track,
and to replace some of the temporary
bridges with permanent ones. The ma
chinery department is we'll supplied, and
in both engines and cars, passenger and
freight, the facilities of the Company are
very efficient. In regard to local and
through freights, and the policy adopted
by this Road, Col. Fremont submits the
following sensible remarks, in speaking of
their tariff of charges
"This arrangement embraced through rates
from the Northern cities via. Portsmouth to this
city. and other places along our line, and re-
opened old route with increased facilities and
brought us much freight. Soon, however, COM
plants were made by our Wilmington merchants
that by it injury was done the trade of this city,
operating as they said to divert trade to the ports
of Virginia. This effect had not been intended
nor anticipated and to remove any cause of COM
plant on this subject the Board of Directors Or
dered the tariff, then but just adopted, to be
voked, and new local rates substituted, which
have, since the first Of October been the measure
of our proportion of through rates from Northern
cities to places on this road.
g do not think this change in the rates char
ged has had the effect to change. materially, the
direction of produce to market, though it has
added to our receipts, while it has caused some
complaint from the merchants of Petersburg and
Norfolk and the people of our Northern coun-
ties.
" These complaints mainly due, | think, to
the principle ofdiscrimnation in favor Oftbe long
distances-a principle this Company has always
considered important, if not Indispensable.
To discriminate in making freight charges
has been long and we'll established. No railway
can be we'll and justly managed where that prin-
cple is not observed.
Suppose the horizontal system to be adopted
and all goods paid the rates per ton per mile
for long short distances the cost of hauling and
ho,o hi, To- asr
that short distances were simply remunerative,
the charges for the longest distances would be
Notwithstanding to prohibition. Carry
the principle out we may, for one, two or three
thousand miles, and we could not enjoy the
products or manufactures of other countries.
90 1t has been thought best, therefore, to equal
ize the burdens of transportation. and Of main
tanning great Railway lines by charging
less and less the distance travelled becomes
greater and greater thus while the residents
near the market towns pay more per mile than
those residing at the greatest, distances yet the
cost of transportation thus distributed is not OPP
pressive upon either, and it enables the Railways
to be maintained, as they are, for the mutual
benefit of stockholders and people.
''This is precisely the principle that regulates
the local tariff of freight for this and most other
Railways.
"The distances charged for are the same, reckon
ed either from Wilmington or Weldon, hence the
citizens that receive goods and forward their
produce at Halifax, Enfield, Battleboro',
Rocky Mount and Wilson, have no more
cause of complaint than those who receive
and deliver theirs at North East Rocky
Point, Burgaw, South Washington, Teachey's
Magnolia and Warsaw. All are charged by the
same table of distances.
IF the complaint is made that the local rates
are too high in one case, they are equally so in
both. The real point of difficulty seems to be
that Weldon is not the market town, but that it
is sixty or eighty miles distant from that point,
while Wilmington is at the Southern terminus
of the road
LAS to high rates, all say is, they are
not SO high in proportion to the cost of opera
ting. or the value of property transported as
they were in 1S6l-nor do the receipts nett as
much by large per centage as they did them
Consolidation.