CANADIAN RAILWAY SHARES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3522, 13 September 1921, Page 19

CANADIAN RAILWAY SHARES.

OTTAWA, September 7. When the Canadian Government took over the Grand Trunk Railway, arbitrators were appointed to decide what value should be place:! on common preferred stock which would define the amount the Government would pay. To-day the arbitrators agreed that stocks which had a par value of 37,000,000 dollars are worth nothing, consequently the Government would not pay tire holders anything. The chief reason for the decision was that during the last few years the railwav had encountered heavy annual deficits, that it had no chance to make money in the near future, and that it would be forced to appoint a- receiver. Mr Taft (a former president), who represented the Grand Trunk Railway, dissented. The undoubted result will be a tremendous shock to English shareholders in the railway, and they will doubtless appeal to the Privy Council. LONDON, September 9. There was a sensation on the London Stock Exchange as the result of the Ottawa Arbitration Board’s decision that the Grand Trunk railway stock was without value. Stocks in London collapsed. Whereas preference and ordinary stock was valued at £47,000,000 on Wednesday and £23.095,000 on Thursday, first preference stock is now £25, second £l4 10s, third £B, ordinary £2 10s. The nominal value_ of the stock is £37,073,000. The City is indignant at the manner in which the board proposes to treat shareholders, and appeals to the Canadian Government to treat stockholders with fairness.