A DESIRABLE' •PLAN. k• - At - the present time the Southern
Railway-is undoubtedlY showing considerable progress, and the prospects are sufficiently bright to warrant hopes of further improvement. -Neverthe- less, under the present arrangement of the capital,-it would require an exceptionally large increase in the-net 'revenue to give, at one and the same time, anything appreciable in the way of dividend on the " B " stock or, for that matter, 'by way- of increase in the distribution on the tleferred Ordinary. It is proposed, therefore, that the three stocks melitioned iii the preceding paragraph should be amalgamated, the Ordinary " A ' stock being converted into Deferred Ordinary at -the rate of 95 per. cent., and the Ordinary " B stock at the rate of 25 per cent., by.which means the present total of 286,197;311, representing Deferred Ordinary and Ordinary " A " and " B " would be-changed into one amount of Deferred Ordiriary, totalling £81,490,242. Such rearrangement would have the Advantage of making one market for a -dividend-paying stock instead of £6.000,000 being represented by a kind of gambling counter, and while it is true that, were ther'e to be no increase in net revenue, the Deferred Ordinary and the " A " shares would have made a trifling sacrifice, it would require only a reasonable advance in net revenue to change a sacrifice into a material _gain. And at present the chances are certainly in favour of greater prosperity for the .Southern Railway.- .The scheme, in fact, seems 'to- be equita1310 and-also desirable in the interests of all-the parties -concerned.
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