Finance—Public & Private

Plight of the Railway Investor

IN considering the burden which is being borne at the present_ time by Income Tax payers in this country, it must not be forgotten that, to the burden represented by increased Government taxes,. increased local rates and increased charges for domestic services, must be added the severe losses suffered through reduced dividends by most companies connected with the leading industries of the country, a reduction which is reflected in appalling fashion in the great fall in market values of securities -themselves.

In no direction is this depreciation. more serious than in the ordinary and prior charge stocks of what at one time was regarded as- among the soundest of home investments, namely, English Railway securities.. To go no farther back than the two years during which the Socialist Government has been in office, the statistics published by the Bankers' Magazine show that, on a group of English Railway stocks representing the ordinary stocks of all of the companies and some of the prior charges, there has been a depreciation in capital values of no less than £135,000,000. And how great has been the individual fall may be gathered from the following list of just a few representative stocks. I give the quotation early in May of 1929—that is well before the last General Election—and the quotation at the date of writing this article, namely, May 12th :- Great Western Ord.

5 p.c. L.M. S. Ord. Pref.

L.N.E.R. ltPfe.cr.rtFlef.

4 p.c. Second Pref. Southern Preferred

5 p.c. Pref. ..

May 3rd,

1929.

84 . • 92 • • 53 • . 681 • • 12/ • • 55 .. 74 .. 88 May 12th, 1931.

511 ..

87 ..

19 ..

431 ..

41 ..

27f ..

.. 51 ..

.. 83 .. Decline.

32} 5 34 25 81 271 23 5

Small wonder that holders of these securities should be gravely concerned, with regard not merely to the losses already suffered, but to the future outlook.