CANALS AND DOCKS.
These offer but a limited area for investment. They were formerly very popular with the British investor, but rival interests and labour troubles have affected the confidence in which they were held, and the ordinary stocks are mostly at a considerable discount.
Gas and electric lighting companies, trams and omnibus companies, telegraphs, telephones, water-works, &c., must all be judged by the localities which they serve and the amount of business they are likely to command. As per- manent investments it should be considered whether they are likely to suffer by supersession or opposition, and if they are managed by a trustworthy competent board of directors.
BREWERIES.
Among the numerous commercial undertak- ings offering for investment, brewery companies form a class of themselves, and, with few excep- tions, the English companies appear to have done well, and the shares of the best of them stand at a high premium. Properly managed and dealing in an article of universal consump- tion, brewery companies ought to be a trust- worthy investment: but they are liable to much fluctuation. The shares of one of the leading concerns, which now stand at about 150 for the £100 share, were only four years ago as low as 28, and at the same time only half the interest was paid on the preference shares. American brewery companies are liable to be manipulated by cliques and syndicates, and should be avoided as an investment.
COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL COMPANIES.
Speaking generally, taking shares in this class of property is like purchasing tickets in a lottery in which the prizes are not numerous. It may fairly be said that at least three-quarters of these companies are formed for the purpose of relieving private owners of concerns which were on the verge of failure through some cause or another.
It would be palpably foolish for a man or a firm doing a prosperous business to give it up into other hands, unless such a price could be obtained for it as would be almost ruinous to the purchaser. True it is that in the remaining quarter may be found perfectly legitimate un- dertakings formed into companies, owing to the death of the owner, deficient capital, or some other valid reason. Some of these flourish and take root, others are prosperous for a time and gradually die out. After a time it will be found that few remain which could be recommended for a permanent investment; and much informa- tion has to be sought and acquired before the venture should be made.
There are, of course, many persons who have the means of acquiring reliable information about a company, and are able to form a sound opinion as to its prospects, but the information is derived from personal knowledge and not from kind friends or from public prints, which are not always to be trusted. These persons purchase shares either for investment or as a speculation — in this latter case with a know- ledge or, at all events, a safe presumption that they will go to a premium, that is, rise in value to considerably more than their nominal amount, either from their own merits, or from an active demand for them on the part of the public, or by artificial stimulation. The holders know pretty well when the highest price has been reached, and then sell out with great advantage to them- selves. It is often at that moment that the tyro is recommended to buy, or is seized with a desire to have a share in so good a concern, and parts with his money. The knowing speculator has taken his profit, and sees with grim satisfaction the shares gradually declining in value, until they arrive at the position of more than one- third of existing companies which are now quoted at a discount.