Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - The Penarth Harbour, Dock & Railway Co. dispute with Messrs. Smith, Knight & Co. . .

1865 (March) - Penarth Harbour, Dock, and Railway Company - "The half-yearly meeting of the shareholders of this company was held on Tuesday, at the offices of the Penarth Harbour, Mr. Crayshaw Bailey, M.P., chairman of the company, presiding. There were also present - Messrs. W. S. Cartwright, Thomas Powell, J. Batchelor, H. J. Evans, G. Thompson, T. E. Heath, S. Batchelor, C. H. Page, Henry Jones, W. Powell, Woolrych, Goddard, Insole, David Davies, Wayne, Gatrex, &c. The secretary, Mr. G. S. Denbigh, read the notice convening the meeting."

Following the Director's report the Engineer's Report was read. "The report of Messrs. Hawkshaw and Dobson, your engineers . . We have to report that the whole of the materials necessary for the completion of the Dock gates have now been delivered. The sea gates, though not yet quite complete, have been closed, and the removal of the sea dam is now being proceeded with. The erection of the other basin and lock gates is far advanced, and may be completed by the time the dam can be removed. The laying of the permanent way, and the completion of the hydraulic coal drop machinery, will also be effected by the same time. The opening of the Dock for traffic now depends upon the removal of the sea dam and the completion of the gates, and if nothing unforeseen occurs, this work should be accomplished by the end of April, and if so, the Dock may be opened for traffic early in May next.

The Chairman remarked that this was the eighteenth half-yearly meeting of the company, and consequently it was now nine years since they had commenced the dock. The directors had laboured hard to bring it to its present state, and the shareholders would find, by the next half-yearly meeting, were in hopes of making a final report that the dock was opened. After it was opened, the directors would receive the dividend from the Taff Vale Company, and they would be able to give the old shareholders their dividend."

You get a strong feeling regarding the pressure from the Board of Directors upon the Engineer's to ensure that the Docks were opened at the earliest date since the "old shareholders" had not yet received one penny interest on their nine-year-long investment; including presumably even Charles Darwin Esq. The meeting proceeded with discussions about large sums of money being borrowed to meet the additional costs of construction since Mr. Hawkshaw and Mr. Dobson took over the role of contractors. An inquiry into the sum of £83,000 was pressed since they had in their capital account £180,000. So why did the company need to borrow a penny, yet alone £83,000? Mr. Smith of Smith & Knight, the original contractors, was present at the meeting and voiced his opinion about the validity of the accounts!