Thames Valley Railway.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4335, 22 November 1882, Page 2

Thames Valley Railway.

A meeting of shareholders in the Thames Valley Railway Company was held at the Borough Chambers last evening. Col. Fraser presided.

The Chairman read a letter from Mr J. R. Browne, Wellington, dated Nov. 17, in which that gentleman said : " Mrllitso has a great many other schemes in hand throughout the colony, but from what I can understand the Thames line will be a favorite, although some very adverse opinions have been given by some of the Government officials, but this will only strengthen the hands of the Committee for the purpose of getting good eonces sions. It was arranged that I should provide all the information possible here, but holding no official position more than an original promoter I was awkwardly placed, especially since a directorate had been formed. Still I take it for granted that anything I may do to further the interests of the Company will be accepted. Being the originator of (he Railways Construction and Land Bill, and acting in the interests of the promoters of the Canterbury and West Coast Railway here in conjunction with the Wellington Manawatu Company, I have acquired a great deal of information which might be of some use to you iv working up the contract with the Government, and shall be happy to place any information required at your disposal, and hope you will not

spare me in that respect. You <eem 'o be very favorably situated, having no opposition. I wish this could be said of other lines, notably, the Canterbury and West Coast, where they have had to con tend with a powerful clique, but by the determined efforts of the original promoters they are now to all intents and purposes conquered. Should you be so placed as not to have all your capital nominally subscribed it might be well to make your colonial capital small and make an interim.contract with the Government, who are willing to do this ia the case of the Canterbury and West Coast line, and I don't see why they Bhould not do so in the Thames case. Even in the Wellington^Manawatu Company one tenth of jfche capital was all they tried to place in the colony, that is £50,000, having done this with a great effort, and made a contract wifrh the Gorernment. The concessions were so good that all the shares (450.000) were applied for in Wellington in a few weeks. This was before there was a sign of English capital offering, and during very depressed times."

The Chairman then introduced Mr fiitso.

Mr Ritso thanked those present for the kind reception they had a-corded him —a stranger. There were cettain schemes in New Zealand, which, if properly placed, could be floated in London, and money found to carry them out. He bad satisfied Mr Sheehan as to the bona fides of his proposals, and he thought he would be able to satisfy their directors when appointed. What he wanted was to be able to send home sufficient information to satisfy his clients in London as to whether the 30 per cent, of construction cost could be obtained in land. The WellingtonManawatu Railway Company had gone through a certain course with Government, and had succeeded very well, and he had with him a prospectus showing how they had managed the matter. If a contract regarding the amount of land to be had were made with Government to send home all that would be necessary would be to send a statement of the value of the lands, certified by a competent authority, and money would then be obtained. In fact, it would mean selling their contract to the capitalists. From the information already before. him, it appeared that the railway was certain to be a payable one. He did not anticipate any difficulty in satisfying his clients as to the prospects of the thing. The whole affair needed to be gone about in a business like manner. He found that they were already well advanced, and he presumed that from the present nucleus they would form a com« pany and go to work immediately to make the contract with Government. He would have a look around during the next few days, and hoped he would be able to report favorably at Home, after which the matter would progress as quickly as possible.

The Chairman said that from the statement made by Mr Kitso he gathered that if the agreement with Government could be made favorably the thing could be floated in England with his assistance. All they required to do tonight was to appoint ten directors with whom he could deal. Upon their directorate would depend in a large measure the success of the scheme.

Mr Kitso said the Wellington-Mana* watu line had been worked somewhat differently to what was proposed by him in this case. They subscribed £300,003 and then borrowed on debentures£22s,ooo calling up only a small portion of their capital. In this way they tied themselves down to the colony, and it was questionable whether it was the best method. The feeling in England would be rather in favor of buying the contract from the company.

The following gentlemen were elected directors:—Messrs Fraser, Ehrenfried, Murdoch, Bagnall, E. McDonnell, Wil kinson, Speight, Mennie, Brown, and Brodie; after which the meeting adjourned.

At a meeting of the directors held afterwards, Col. Fraser was appointed chairman of directors, and four of the directory were appointed a committee to conduct Mr Kitso over the proposed line.