Series 4 > Scottish industrial history

THE NORTH BRITISH RAILWAY INQUIRY lyi
after half-year, saddled with a large portion of the Revenue Ex¬
penditure. With these stem facts before one, there can be no doubt
the payment of a dividend to the ordinary Shareholders is a thing
not to be dreamt of for many years.
In these circumstances, it appears to me that not a day should be
lost in making the Board aware of our position. Painful as it is for
me to differ with you, I must, if you decline to acquaint the Board,
do so myself. - Yours faithfully, j. walker.
The Secretary received no answer to this letter, but was informed
by the Chairman that he was coming to Edinburgh two days
thereafter.
On the following day, seeing the necessity of immediate action,
the Secretary shewed a copy of this letter to two of the Directors,
who met on the Company’s business.
The Statement of the ten Directors, already referred to, shews
that no time was lost in acting on the information thus communi¬
cated.
The documents which have been laid before the Committee bear
internal evidence that early in the present year the Secretary antici¬
pated, with great exactitude, that the affairs of the Company would
be in the position which has now been realized, and that he has,
during the past eight months, repeatedly brought the financial
complications, and their inevitable results, before the Chairman
and the Board. The Committee find that in a statement prepared by
Mr. Walker, exhibiting the estimated receipts and payments, from
1st June to 30th November 1866, submitted to the Finance Com¬
mittee on 30th May last, and considered and referred to the Board
on 16th June thereafter, the following Memorandum occurs:
‘Assuming the whole of the Debenture Loans to be secured, and the
Preference Stocks to realize par, both very unlikely to be obtained,
there will remain a deficiency of ^128,000. The only other asset of
importance that the Company have at present to fall back on, is the
1865 Preference Stock, and it is hopeless to expect at this time, to
float it. This state of matters requires the serious attention of the
Directors, and unless measures are at once devised and carried out to
obtain funds, the time will very soon arrive when it will be im¬
possible for the Company to meet its engagements’.