LONDON DISTRICT TELEGRAPH COMPANY.
We copy the following official statement of the London District Telegraph Company from the Telegraphic Journal, London, July 30, 1864. The capital of the company is £60,000, and the average cost of telegrams transmitted over its lines, for distances that cannot exceed ten miles, was 6d., equal to eighteen cents in our currency, and yet the loss in four and a half years’ business was £9,573 3s. 7d.:—
| Half-year ending | Number of Messages. | Receipts for Messages. | Expenditures. | Deficiency. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | |||
| June, | 1860 | 26,155 | 550 | 19 | 11 | 2,282 | 10 | 7 | 1,326 | 2 | 4 |
| December, | 1860 | 47,365 | 1,058 | 19 | 2 | 3,294 | 0 | 6 | 2,168 | 1 | 7 |
| June, | 1861 | 64,785 | 2,137 | 1 | 7 | 4,394 | 12 | 3 | 2,177 | 11 | 4 |
| December, | 1861 | 77,939 | 2,592 | 15 | 10 | 4,663 | 5 | 4 | 1,995 | 13 | 7 |
| June, | 1862 | 123,280 | 3,956 | 4 | 8 | 5,077 | 17 | 11 | 1,077 | 15 | 4 |
| December, | 1862 | 124,222 | 3,999 | 3 | 2 | 4,958 | 4 | 2 | 894 | 0 | 4 |
| June, | 1863 | 129,710 | 4,216 | 6 | 11 | 4,721 | 1 | 3 | 440 | 9 | 4 |
| December, | 1863 | 131,216 | 4,326 | 4 | 0 | 5,125 | 9 | 4 | 796 | 15 | 4 |
| June, | 1864 | 152,795 | 4,802 | 10 | 0 | 4,863 | 17 | 10 | 60 | 12 | 0 |
The Directors of the above company express much satisfaction in being able to present to the shareholders so favorable a statement of its business; but it strikes us that a system which entailed a net loss of one sixth of the capital invested in a little over four years is not a desirable one for imitation.