SOUTHAMPTON AND PETERSFIELD.
A meeting of the proprietors was held at Southampton on Wednesday.
Mr. Joseph Lobb presided, and read the report. It contained, amongst other statements, the following :—
"The allotment took place on the 4th of November, but by this time, as you are aware, the panic in the share market had commenced. Your committee used their influence to induce the allottees to take up their allotments, and the bankers were instructed to receive deposits up to the end of the month. At that time, however, it was ascertained that the deposits upon 4,475 shares only, of the 16,930 shares allotted, had been paid, amounting to 9,367l. 10s; and as 37,500l. would have been required to make the Parliamentary deposit of 10 per cent, on three-fourths of the capital, it was found, in the unimproved state of the Money Market, absolutely necessary to postpone the further prosecution of the undertaking. At this period the surveys of the line had been completed, and the plans, sections, and books of reference duly deposited, as required by the standing orders of Parliament; but your committee, from that time, refrained from incurring any further parliamentary expenses. They can also state that throughout the whole of their proceedings not a shilling has been unnecessarily or wastefully expended by the committee, nor have they made any charge for the time they have devoted to the interests of the company, in attending numerous committee and sub-committee meetings, and deputations, during a period of four months. The liabilities and expenses necessarily incurred, and for which it is requisite to make immediate provision, are as follow : —
| Engineering and surveying | £2,500 |
| Law expenses | 1,350 |
| Advertising, printing, and stationery | 925 |
| Rent, furniture, salaries, postage, and office disbursements | 635 |
| Travelling and preliminary expenses | 392 |
| Liabilities, not ascertained, about | 40 |
| Probable expenses of adjusting the affairs of the company, say | 500 |
| £6,344 |
To discharge these liabilities and expenses your committee of management have resolved to contribute 50l. each, by the 31st instant, and to require from each other member of the provisional committee 35l. They have also caused application to be made to each defaulter on the allotment for 5s per share, and they propose to deduct 7s 6d per share from the deposits received on the shares allotted to the public. From these several sources they expect to realise the following amounts :—
| From 18 members of the managing committee 50l. each | £900 |
| From about 105 members of the provisional committee, 35l. each | 3,675 |
| From the defaulters on the allotment, about | 400 |
| From the deposits on 4,475 shares, at 7s 6d per share | 1,678 |
| Making together | £6,653 |
When their arrangements are fully completed, they propose to convene a general meeting of the shareholders, and lay before them a full report of the whole of their proceedings, with a statement of their views as to any measures they may think desirable to be adopted with reference to the prosecution of the undertaking in the next session of Parliament.”
After considerable discussion, resolutions adopting the recommendations in the report were carried.
(See also
31-Jan-1846)