At the half-yearly meeting of the South-Eastern Railway Company, Mr.
Watkin, the chairman, and Member for Stoekport, made a speech defending the recent increase of fares on the Southern lines. He urged that the railway was giving facilities which "enabled agricultural land to be sold at building prices,"— which is quite true, and too often forgotten ; that there were 6,000 shareholders in the line who wanted cash,—which is very probable, but not to the purpose ; and that the shareholders had a right to a dividend of 5 per cent.,—which is unmitigated nonsense. They have a right to 5 per cent. or 50 if they can get it fairly, and not otherwise. He concluded by remarking that he had been, on the whole, a pecuniary loser by his chairmanship of the line, but had been rewarded by the confidence and esteem of the proprietary, a remark which seems to have staggered his audience, for we notice no " cheering " after it. Mr. Watkin in the character of the Friend of Humanity was a little too much even for men accus- tomed to the exhibitions of transpontine theatres. If chairman- ship costs him money, why does he not cease being chairman ?
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