Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - The official opening of the docks . . .

He regretted that the duty of responding to the toast was not in the abler hands of their chairman. Mr. Bailey; but he could assure them in Mr. Bailey's name, as well as that of the rest of his directors, that the Board were deeply sensible of the kind confidence which had been reposed in them by the shareholders for whom they acted.

But the directors, he believed, were not unworthy of this confidence. They had worked manfully, unflinchingly, to the services of the company- and there was one in particular, who had never been absent from any meeting, or neglected the slightest opportunity of promoting the interests of the company - he referred to Mr. John Batchelor - (cheers.)

The shareholders were deeply indebted to this gentleman, and he (Mr. C.) would be doing injustice to his own feelings if he did not tell them so on this occasion. He believed that all the directors had fairly done their duty, but Mr. Batchelor had been conspicuously zealous in promoting the interests of the company.

Mr. John Batchelor, being loudly called for, rose and spoke at some length, but was totally inaudible where the reporters sat.

The Chairman next gave - "Success to the Taff Vale Railway Company's undertakings," and remarked that those present would most cordially join in wishing success to the Taff Vale company, when they remembered that the Penarth company's undertaking had been leased to the Taff Vale, and that the Penarth directors had the firmest reliance both on the good faith and the good management which characterised the Taff Vale company, and they sincerely believed that the arrangement to which he referred was one which would promote the interests of the district at large, as well as those of the shareholders of both companies - (cheers.)

Mr. James Poole, Chairman of the Taff Vale railway company responded. He said that he had had the honour of being a director of the Taff Vale railway ever since 1840, and was deputy chairman under the late Lord James Stuart for two or three years, after which he succeeded his lordship in the chair, and had occupied that position ever since his lordship's death. During this period he had often had occasion to stand before meetings of the proprietary, under circumstances of all descriptions - adverse, favourable, and most prosperous; but he could assure them that he had never stood before an assembly with greater diffidence than to-day. He need not inform them that the Taff Vale had been a most successful undertaking.