esponsible office, Mr. Samuel Williamson, trained under Mr. Conacher's
tutelage, and thus specially fitted to continue that wise and far-seeing
policy which had marked his instructor's methods. Under Mr. Williamson's
guiding hand, still further assisted in very valuable fashion by Mr.
Conacher, when, for a few years before his death, in 1911, he was called
to the chair of the Board, and since then by a Board of which Major David
Davies, M.P., the grandson of one of the foremost of the Cambrian's
pioneers is chairman, the financial position of the Company has very
materially improved.

This is reflected in the terms of amalgamation with the Great Western
Company. In 1908 the stockholders of the Company received the sum of
96,556 pounds, but such was the rapid improvement in the Company's
position that in 1913 they received 119,005 pounds, that is to say, in
the space of five years the amount increased by 23.25 per cent., and it
was on this basis that the negotiations with the Great Western Company
were carried through in 1922, because for the period from 4th August,
1914, to 15th August, 1921, under the arrangement with the Government,
the profits of the Company were fixed on the 1913 basis. Commencing as
from 1st January, 1922, the terms of amalgamation give to the proprietors
of the Cambrian Company an immediate annual income of 119,307 pounds, and
this will be increased as from 1st January, 1929, by a further annual sum
of 18,161 pounds, assuming the dividend on the Ordinary Stock of the
Great Western Company remains as at present, viz:--7.25% per annum, thus
making a total of 137,468 pounds. In addition to this improvement, the
Company, on the one hand, during the period from 1909 to 1913, cleared
off a heavy debt, and, on the other hand, built up very substantial
reserves and, in fact, at the end of 1913, the financial position of the
Company was stronger than it had ever been.

[Picture: Two Faithful Servants. The late MR. RICHARD BRAYNE, Secretary
1895-1900. MR. T. S. GOLDSWORTHY, Store-keeper, and Senior Officer at
the time of its amalgamation with the Great Western]

It has, however, been an agency beyond the control of directorate or
internal management which has shaped the final destiny of the Company.
From time to time during the years up to 1914 rumours have circulated
concerning the prospective purchase of the Cambrian by one of its great
neighbours, either the Great Western, or, more o