98 



CANALS. 



reasons for the neglect of the railway-owned canals. I have already quoted 

 Sir Michael Hicks-Beach on this subject. A single fact will illustrate the 

 case as vividly as pages of argument. Between 1888 and 1898 the traffic 

 on independent canals in the United Kingdom increased by over 5,000,000 

 tons ; on the railway-owned canals, in the same period, the traffic decreased 

 2,000,000 tons. The Midland Great Western Railway Company of Ireland, 

 which purchased the Royal Canal for a sum of ;6'298,05g, and have, since 

 1845, expended on it, according to the Board of Trade returns, a sum of 

 ;£"I09,3I3, do not themselves act as carriers over that waterway, being 

 simply toll-takers to the extent of £'2,7 \1 in the year 1898. Of course, it 

 must be remembered that the tonnage of heavy goods traffic on an Irish rail- 

 road cannot compare in volume with that on any of the trunk lines of Great 

 Britain, and still less with that on the chief transatlantic lines.* There s 

 seldom in this country a serious congestion of freight traffic as is, indeed, 

 evidenced by the fact that out of the total mileage of 3,176 only 621 miles 

 are double (or more) lines. The Great Western of England has more than 

 twice as great a mileage as the whole Irish railway system under double 

 (or more) lines. 



Hence, on the one hand, the railways can, in a country like Ireland, pro- 

 vide for this class of heavy goods traffic proportionately cheaper — I mean 

 at less cost to themselvest — than can be done on English or American lines, 

 while, on the other, the absence of a fully-developed free water competition 

 enables them to maintain freight charges, in most cases, at a non-competi- 

 live and therefore very remunerative level. However, the issues involved m 



* Mr. J. Thompson, President of the Manchester Chamber ot Commerce, and one of the 

 members of a deputation which waited on the President of the Board of Trade last -year in 

 reference to the canal system of the United Kingdom, is reported {Times, December 14th, igoo) 

 to have said that " the railways had reached the limit of their capacity for heavy traffic, and 

 they all felt that the canals were a very valuable and imperfectly utilised mode of transport, 

 and were capable of great improvement." 



t Having regard (in the case of Ireland) to the smaller quantity of capital expenditure 

 involved, the lack of expenditure on additional tracks, sidings, goods stores, &c., and particu- 

 larly the considerably smaller outlay on wages and salaries. In connection with the latter, the 

 following Board of Trade returns are suggestive : — 



EARNINGS OF RAILWAY SERVANTS. 



Note. — The workpeople included in the table are those employed in the coaching, 

 goods, locomotive, and engineers' departments of the Railway Companies. The 29 Com- 

 panies making returns employ over 90 per cent, of all the railway ser\ants in the United 

 Kingdom. 



X Two of these are now under one management. 



