the really divisible profit, after providing for debenture interest and preference dividend. Out of this £388,000 the directors pay £265,000, or 68 per cent., in dividend and hold back £123,000, or 32 per cent.—not far off a third.
It has also to be noted that the allocation of £50,000 to Reserve Fund raises it to a million, or nearly half the amount of the ordinary capital, which stands at £2,040,000, so that shareholders who are hungry for large dividends (as all human shareholders naturally are in view of the risks that they take) may feel that the directors have done quite enough in the matter of piling up reserves out of money which might have increased the current income of shareholders. And we find in the Report a sentence which indicates that the Board feels that it has to explain its action in pursuing still further the policy of building up reserves. For they observe, after stating that the total distribution to ordinary shareholders recommended is 11 per cent. and a bonus of 2 per cent., "it is also proposed to place £50,000 to Reserve Fund (which will then amount to £1,000,000) and, in addition to the regular yearly amounts written off the Property Account, it is considered prudent to provide a further £100,000 for depreciation," etc. More
