The lease of the California Pacific to the Central Pacific in 1876 carried a rental of $550,000 per year, plus three-fourths of the net earnings of the California Pacific above that amount. The Central Pacific guaranteed principal and interest on $3,000,000 of bonds. This was changed to a flat payment of $600,000 per year in 1879.[197] The Central Pacific leased the Amador branch between Galt and Ione for $3,500 per month. In the case of the Stockton and Copperopolis, however, it undertook only to pay principal and interest on $500,000 of thirty-year bonds, at 5 per cent, with the provision, however, that the net earnings should apply on the Stockton and Copperopolis floating debt.[198] These variations, if they show nothing else, are persuasive that the associates had no standard method of procedure but suited their arrangements to the facts in each individual case. Lease of Southern Pacific Perhaps the most interesting relations between the different companies in the Huntington-Stanford system were those existing between the Central Pacific and the Southern Pacific—the Central Pacific’s most important extension. It has already been noted that during the early period of construction the Southern Pacific lines south of Goshen were turned over to the Central Pacific operating department as fast as they were completed. At one time the authority of some Central Pacific officials reached east to New Orleans, though the general superintendent, Mr. Towne, seems never to have had jurisdiction beyond Vermillionville, 144 miles from New Orleans.[199] The advantages of this arrangement were obvious. Under the lease, the Central Pacific paid the Southern Pacific $500 per mile per month rental, less $250 per mile per month to cover operating expenses, or a net sum of $250 per mile per month. As amended in 1879 and 1880, the leases made no mention of the $500 payment, but the Central Pacific engaged to keep the Southern Pacific in good repair, and to pay $250 per mile monthly.[200] In its first form the lease contained the implication that the operating ratio of the Southern Pacific was only 50 per cent, and it has been suspected that this was deliberately arranged in order to assist Mr. Huntington in disposing of Southern Pacific securities in New York. The lease was originally terminable on twelve months’ notice, but in 1880, on demand of New York bankers who contemplated the purchase of Southern Pacific bonds, it was changed to run for at least five years.