THE RAILWAY OUTLOOK.
Although the tone of Home Railway traffics for the first six months of this year shows that the improvement estab- lished last year has been well maintained, the market for Railway stocks is not showing undue exuberance with-regard to dividend estimates, though there has been a certain amount of speculative buying of L.M.S. 4 per cent. Preference of 1923, on the bare hope that dividends may be in sight before long. The fact is, however, that the market for Home Railway stocks is overshadowed at the moment by a number of uncer- tainties both of a favourable and unfavourable character. As regards the former, there is a general hope that the final decisions with regard to the rating assessments may be favourable to the railways, but, on the other hand, not only is there uncertainty with reward to the extent to which railway expenditure may have been affected during the first half of this year by the partial restoration of wages cuts, to say nothing of increased expenditure upon expanded traffics, but also we already have the prospect of demands on the part of the wage earners for a full restoration of the cuts. Altogether, therefore, it seems likely that a cautious policy will be followed so far as the interim distributions are con- cerned, though there is a reasonable prospect of a further expansion in revenues during the second half of the year, given a continuance of the present improvement in trade.
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