RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.
South-Western Railway. —A general meeting of the shareholders in this company was held yesterday at the station, Nine Elms, for the purpose of receiving the report of the directors, and considering the measures to be taken with respect to several projected extensions during the forthcoming session of parliament. Mr. Chaplin presided.—The notice calling the meeting having been read, the secretary then proceeded to read the report, of which the following is an abstract The directors, after stating that the importance of the measures for consideration must excuse them for calling the proprietors together at that time, said—with reference then to the formation of the projected lines to Epsom, Chertsey, and Egham ; to Farnham and Alton; Salisbury from Basingstoke, by Whitchurch and Andover, and from Romsey to Redbridge, your directors will only remind you that they have already been fully authorised and requested by your proprietors to proceed, and everything has accordingly been done which your directors have deemed advisable in the promotion of these several projects. The directors then add, that they had further investigated the extension to London-bridge, and they unhesitatingly recommended the measure; they recommended also, that application should be made to Parliament for an extension branch to Hampton-court. The directors had on former occasions entered so fully into explanations with respect to the Guildford and Chichester and Portsmouth and Farnham lines, that they did not feel called upon to state more than that, in addition to the prosecution of the bill now pending the House of Lords for the portions of railway between Guildford and Godalming, and between Fareham and Portsmouth, the Guildford, Chichester, and Portsmouth Company would apply in the ensuing session for powers to make the remainder of the line to Chichester, originally proposed, and, with a view to the Improvement of their scheme, they have added to it branches to Petersfield, Chichester Harbour, and the dockyards at Portsmouth, with further stations and accommodation for general purposes at Portsmouth. An agreement had been come to whereby the London and South-Western Company would become half-owners, with the London and Brighton Company, of the Portsmouth and Fareham Extension of the Brighton and Chichester Railway, sanctioned by parliament in the last session; and the directors trusted that a more complete scheme, even than that of last session, would be presented to parliament without any material increase of expense. It remained for the directors to explain the provisional arrangements made with reference to the lines west of Salisbury. The scheme to be presented to parliament would embrace an entire system of railway communication from Basingstoke to the Land's-End. The projected line of this company from Basingstoke to Whitchurch, and Andover to Salisbury, would be continued by the line proposed by the London, Salisbury, and Yeovil Company, to Yeovil by the lines and branches of the Exeter, Yeovil, and Dorchester Company, to Exeter, and by the Cornwall and Devon Central line to Falmouth and Penzance. The entire capital of all these lines would 5,900,000l., and of this amount one-fourth was to be transferred to the London and South-Western Railway Company, who would thereupon immediately obtain a corresponding share in the management of each of the undertakings. Each of the several companies would separately apply to parliament for powers to construct its own line, and apply to parliament for powers to construct its own line, and should the applications for all be successful, it was proposed that the London and South-Western, London, Salisbury, and Yeovil, and Cornwall and Devon Central Railway Companies should be amalgamated, and that the present debenture debt of the London and South-Western Company, amounting to 630,000l., should become a charge upon the entire undertaking. As regarded the capital for the works proposed by the directors, exclusive of the lines west of Salisbury, they proposed to provide for it by calls on all the shares of the company whereon calls remained unpaid, and by exercising the powers of borrowing, obtained by the company in the last session. The directors have exhausted all the points to which it was necessary to allude, conclude their report with a repetition of their unabated confidence in the soundness of the principles and continued prosperity of the undertaking.—The chairman then rose, and entered into a long statement of the squabble between the Great Western Company and themselves, for which we have not space. After some discussion, resolutions in accordance with the recommendations contained in the report were then proposed from the chair, and after lengthy discussions upon minor details, they were unanimously adopted by the meeting.—In answer to a question, Mr. Uxidi explained that the number of new shares were 46,500 of 50l. and 6,000 of 40l. upon which the directors had power of calling 25l. on the first, and 20l. on the second, and one of the resolutions gave them the power to call up. —The chairman said this dosed the business of the meeting, but before they separated, he wished to bring under their notice a matter of considerable importance. At their last meeting a sub-committee was appointed to consider best means of improving the steam navigation between Portsmouth and France and Southampton and France. The chairman of that committee was then present, and he trusted the hon. gentleman was in a position to give then hope of their ultimately succeeding in the object they had in view. — Mr. Tite said the committee had found the navigation most defective, and they thought the best plan which could be adopted was to break up the two existing steam companies, and thus put an end to the local rivalry which at present existed. This could only be done by the formation of a new company, who could purchase the boats of the old company for about 150,000l.; but no new company could be formed unless they guaranteed them a dividend. He should therefore propose, as the formation of such a company could tend greatly to increase their traffic, that the directors be empowered to take steps to promote a new company. —Some opposition was offered to this proposal, but it was ultimately adopted by the majority of the shareholders, and thanks having been voted to the chairman, the meeting separated, after a very protracted sitting.