86 CANALS. 



dividend of £go or £ioo a year. The fourth part of a Trent and Mersey 

 Canal share, or ^^50 of the company's stock, is now fetching i^6oo, and 

 yields a dividend of about £-^o a year. And there are various other canals 

 in nearly the same situation." While, however, it is quite true that the 

 canal proprietors in pre-railway days reaped the harvest of monopoly rates, 

 that supplies no reason whatever why they should have been sacrificed in 

 the interests of another monopoly. It was, on the contrary, a strong reason 

 for safeguarding the legitimate powers and functions of each means of com- 

 munication, and thus permitting the development of a sound and healthy 

 competition, which would have proved of enormous service to the trading 

 community and (as it is now being recognised, especially on the Continent) 

 have been in the true interests of the railways themselves. Parliament has, 

 since 1845, made many efforts to secure an equitable readjustment of the 

 respective interests of canal and railway owners. Several Royal Com- 

 missions and Select Committees have investigated the subject, and in the 

 years 1854, 1873, 1888, and 1894, respectively, important Acts of Parlia- 

 ment to regulate railway and canal traffic have passed the Legislature. The 

 Act of 1 873 established a Railway Commission, consisting of three members 

 and two assistants, in whose hands was placed the enforcement of the pre- 

 vious Act of 1854. This Act of 1873 was to have had effect for five years 

 only, but in 1878 it was continued till the end of 1879, then till December 

 31st, 1882, then for five years longer. In 1887 the Commissioners were 

 made a permanent body. The Act of 1 873 enacted, mter alia, that : — 



" Every railway company and canal company shall keep at each of their 

 stations and wharves a book or books showing every rate for the time being 

 charged for the carriage of traffic other than passengers and their luggage, 

 from that station or wharf to any place to which they book, including any 

 rates charged under any special contract, and stating the distance from that 

 station or wharf of every station, wharf, siding, or place to which any such 

 rate is charged. 



e m- 



" Every such book shall, during all reasonable hours, be open to th 

 spection of any person without the payment of any fee. 



" The Commissioners may from time to time, on the application of any per- 

 son interested, make orders with respect to any particular description of traffic, 

 requiring a railway company or canal company to distinguish in such book 

 how much of each rate is for the conveyance of the traffic on the railway or 

 canal, including therein tolls for the use of the railway or canal, for the use of 

 carriages or vessels, or for locomotive power, and how much is for other ex- 

 penses, specifying the nature and detail of such other expenses. 



" Any company failing to comply with the provisions of this section shall 

 for each offence, and in the case of a continuing offence, for every day during 

 which the offence continues, be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds, 

 and such penalty shall be recovered and applied in the same manner as penal- 

 ties imposed by the Railways Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, ^^^ the Rail- 

 ways Clauses Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1845 (as the case may require), 

 are for the time being recoverable and applicable." (Section 14.) 



The Commissioners had power to decide whether terminal charges were 

 reasonable, and their consent was necessary before any railway company 

 could, except by Act of Parliament, purchase or obtain control of a canal 

 (sect. 16). 



