The Investigating Committee of the Caledonian Railway have presented their
report, and it seems to please the investing public, for the shares have slightly advanced. It certainly will not please anybody outside that particularly stupid class, for it shows that while the Company declared a dividend of 5 per cent. for the year ending July 31st, 1867, they only earned one of 2/. 18s. 2d. Indeed, the auditors say it was leas, and the Pall Mall Gazelle, in a striking review of the Committee's own figures, strives to show that they earned 5,3201., less than nothing. Of course the differ- ence of estimate is due to the conflict of opinion as to items pro- perly chargeable to capital, the true principle about which we believe to be this. Nothing is properly chargeable to capital which does not increase the permanent plant of the company. No renewal or maintenance of any kind ought to be so charged, and the first burden on revenue ought to be a per-centage, to be fixed after scientific inquiry, for wear and tear. We do not believe there are five railways in Great Britain which, after those tests, could declare a dividend ; yet to this, or to the State, they must all come at last. Nothing but State interference, either by com- pulsory audit or, as we should prefer, by purchase, can now save the vast property invested in the system. Yet the Directors for the next ten years will go on singing pans about the capacity of the British middle class, which cannot even keep decently clear accounts.
