occasions, the greater portion of the money found its way back into the pockets of the silly people who parted with it. I could go on enumerating similar instances of fraud and gullibility indefinitely did space permit, but I think I have adduced enough evidence to prove, up to the hilt, my assertion that it is sheer folly for any man, however clever he may think himself to be, to expect to make a fortune out of the new companies that are offered to him at the present day—unless he is in the swim. would be better advised to throw his money into the sea, for then he would have none of the cares and troubles that attend on the footsteps of the fin de siecle shareholder. LEYSON T. MERRY. He CHAPTER XXVII. LOSSES BY STOCK EXCHANGE INVESTMENTS. BY C. F. DOWSETT, F.S.I., Author of various Articles on Land and House Properties, Striking Events in Irish History," etc. ONE of the calamities which has befallen the broad acres of this country is the diversion of capital into other channels, in consequence of the unpopularity into which broad acre investments have fallen. Money which in the earlier Seventies would have been used in buying land or country houses for occupation-or farms for investment of family funds or advanced on mortgage of broad acres to enable the owners to build and repair houses, cottages, buildings, fences, to drain, to use improved implements of cultivation, and in a variety of ways, has been withheld from the land through the Eighties, to the impoverishment of the country districts, and the dispersion of many farmers and labourers. As wealth has increased, and as money must be invested in something, and as "all the world" has done its best to frighten it away from the soil, and as the decreasing interest derived from Government Stocks has spoilt the charm even of their "sweet simplicity," and as the cupidity of human nature has been willing to believe the fair promises of Boards of non-directingDirectors, the result has been that capital has been lost not only to broad acres but to the country generally. A " Out of the mass of companies formed and connected with the Stock Exchange, how many of the Directors are really competent to direct? promoter" starts a scheme which on paper appears to ensure a future according to the way it is represented; he secures a board of names, the best names he can command as likely to impress the public so as to induce the sale of shares-that is the one object, the sale of shares-and out of the proceeds of such sale the promoters divide a handsome sum, and having launched their scheme and given it a push into the ocean of commercial competitions they leave it to found another and another. The names direct or misdirect-someone manages, and so long as they can draw fees for attending the Board it is pleasant enough; it is "heads they win, tails others lose," they have no substantial stake in the concern, the shares standing in their names in the articles of association were given them by the promoters. If all turns out well, the shares are a property, if things are going wrong and they have a character to lose then they retire from the Board as soon as they can, perhaps never reflecting that their names have been used successfully in drawing some hard-earned savings from the poor duped shareholders. A country is prosperously governed according to the ability and honesty of the people who govern it; the same of a County Council, or any other corporate body, and of course the same principle holds good with the Board of a public company. What chance has a company of succeeding whose Directors only hold their posts because they were presented with a given number of shares, and because they draw so many guineas per month for attendance ?-Directors who are oftentimes utterly ignorant of the nature of the business the com pany was formed to carry on, and yet they are to direct it! Millions sterling have been sunk in ventures which are ephemeral, governed by Directors who are shameless, and supported by shareholders who are avaricious, whose cupidity has led them to drop the substance for the shadow. The winding up of these ventures means not only losses to credulous persons who never enquired into the concerns beyond the rate of interest promised or intimated, but it means depopulated villages, dilapidated buildings, neglected farms, and general depreciation through the counties. The time has arrived to turn the tables, and to show the public that land is not so bad nor the Stock Exchange so good in point of investment as a grasping fashion has led many to believe. Let us examine some of the depreciated values of Stock Exchange investments; we have heard enough of depreciated land values; let the following figures impart a warning to those who have left the solid ground for the paper property. The selection that has been made includes many concerns which have existed for some time before becoming limited liability companies, and here it would have been expected that accountants certifying as to the turnover would have been able to state whether the concern would be an improving property, or rapidly retrograding such as this list seems to show; and if they are unable to give any surety to the investing public, to whom shall these turn? The Trust Companies have many of them been quoted at a premium, and were much recommended in many quarters; now month by month their market value is lessened and the bottom of the fall does not by any means seem reached. |