348 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS? 



railway charges must necessarily bear some rela- 

 tion to the services rendered. Take the case of 

 a parcel, however small, sent by passenger train. 

 It is first entered on a way-bill, which is made 

 out in duplicate. One copy of this way-bill is 

 placed on a clip to be sent at the end of the 

 month to the chief office for the preparation of 

 the monthly returns, on which it will represent 

 a separate item ; and from thence it will go to 

 the Railway Clearing House, where, if the 

 parcel should have travelled over the lines of 

 different companies, the proportion due to each 

 must be assessed. The second copy of the way- 

 bill will have been delivered with the parcel to 

 the guard of the passenger train. At the receiv- 

 ing end all the way-bills are collected from the 

 guard by a railway servant sent to meet the 

 train for this purpose. He takes them into the 

 parcels office, where a clerk will check both 

 parcels and way-bills. Should one of the former 

 be missing a separate report must be made to 

 the sending station, and it may be that consider- 

 able correspondence will ensue, and inquiries be 

 made up and down the line, before the lost 

 package is found. Should parcels and way-bills 

 agree, those of the former which are to be de- 

 livered by the company are given over to the 

 delivery clerk, who will proceed to make out 



