JO 



great railways. I see that my friend Mr. Duff estimates, 

 in a paper he recently published, that the Scotch fishermen 

 can send a barrel of herrings from Scotland to Hamburg, 

 or any of the German ports, for a charge of js. 6d., whilst 

 it would cost from 5^-. to los. to send the same barrel of 

 herrings to the great inland markets by railway. If that 

 be so, it is obvious that the railway companies destroy a 

 large amount of traffic by the high rates they are charging 

 for the carriage of these fish. Even railway companies, 

 wealthy as they are, cannot afford to neglect a great traffic 

 of this description. If they carry now 272,000 tons of fish, 

 and if the average rate is only placed at £s> and I believe 

 it might be placed much higher, the fish traffic is bringing 

 them in a gross income of ;^ 800,000 a year ; and I cannot 

 believe that either directors of railways or railway share- 

 holders can be blind to a traffic which already yields a 

 return of ^800,000, and which is capable of very great 

 expansion. 



But if, unfortunately, we are unable to convert the 

 railways to what I believe to be a true sense of their own 

 interests, I think it is the interest of all of us to take 

 care that the railway companies should be exposed to a 

 healthy competition. Now, fortunately, it is easy to provide 

 that competition of that kind should arise. To illustrate 

 what I mean, I will turn from the case of Scotland to 

 the case of Billingsgate. Of the whole amount of fish 

 which comes to English markets, nearly one-third comes 

 to Billingsgate ; therefore Billingsgate bears a very im- 

 portant share in a calculation of this character. Now in 

 olden times Billingsgate used almost entirely to be supplied 

 with fish by water, but since the introduction of railways 

 It, until recently, was chiefly supplied with fish by land. 

 In recent times, however, the excessive railway charges 



