East Indian Railway: 1848/08/30 Meeting
Note: This is a sub-section of the East Indian Railway
Meeting 1848/08/30.[1]
The first half-yearly general meeting of the proprietors of this company was held at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street, yesterday afternoon; H. A. Aglionby, Esq., M.P. (Chairman of the Board of Directors), presiding. After the usual formalities, the Chairman called upon the Secretary (D. I. Noad, Esq.) to read the Directors' Report,.....[more]
"...Since the last meting, the measures of the board of directors has been directed to the object of making considerable reductions in the establishment of the company, which the nature of the company's proposed operations both admitted and required. The establishment in London consisted of the secretary, the accountant, two head clerks, and three juniors, the total expense of whose salaries amounted to £105 per month, making the whole expense of the home establishment, with rent, £1,890 per annum.
"The Indian management consisted of Mr. Stephenson, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Beeston, with a secretary and assistant-secretary, at an annual cost of £7,200. Besides these, there were eleven executive engineers and one assistant, four of whom were appointed in May, 1845, and seven in Sept., 1847, whose united salaries amounted to £9,420 per annum.
"The directors have already stated that, if the events which have subsequently occurred could have beer foreseen when those appointments were made, they would not have taken place, but neither the shareholders nor the directors anticipated either the great commercial embarrassments of the latter end of 1847 or the political occurrences of the present year. The home establishment does not appear to the board to admit of reduction in numbers, consistently with the duties required; but the several parties have, with much good feeling, placed themselves entirely in the hands of the board, and have signified their readiness to acquiesce in any financial arrangements which the interests of the company may require.
"With regard to the Indian establishment, the directors have thought it to request Mr. Stephenson to return to the country, both with a view to the benefit of his information in the discussion of a contract with the East India Company, and also to a diminution of the company's expenses, and they have given notice to Messrs. Adams, Beeston and Daniel, which they reserved in the agreement with them, to terminate their engagements at the end of six months, so that, at the expiration of this period, that expense may wholly or in part cease, as the company's interest may admit or require. The engagements with four of the surveyors has terminated by effluxion of time, and the directors are making arrangements of five others, on the principle of a compromise, which they have reason to believe will be effected at a cost under £6,000. By these arrangements the annual Indian expenditure will have been reduced from £10,620 to £6,480, on the termination of Messrs. Adams, Beeston and Daniel, and the directors contemplate a still further reduction to the amount of £2,000, on Mr. Stephenson's return....[more]
"The first publications which the board propose to notice are by Mr. John Bourne, a surveyor in the employ of the company. That gentleman, prior to his engagement with the company, was the author of a pamphlet, which has since been republished by him, with a letter to the chairman, suggesting that a single line of railway laid on the present road to Mirzapore, would be the most advantageous to the interests of the Government and the company. The plan was by no means new to the company....Mr. Bourne has since published a letter, addressed to the editor of 'Railway Times' in which he endeavours to prove that a section of the line from Calcutta to Mirzapore cannot pay; and he proceeds in to calculations on the subject, taking for his example a section of 150 miles out of Calcutta.....[more]
"Your directors have now to notice the letter which have appeared in the Times newspaper, signed by Major-General McLeod and Mr. W. P. Andrew and dated respectively the 20th and 27th of July, and the 5th of August. [in which they resign their directorships]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Morning Chronicle - Thursday 31 August 1848