RAILWAYS AND TRADERS 193 



various initial difficulties including strong prejudices 

 on the part of some of the growers have had to be 

 overcome, the society has made a very good start. Its 

 first consignment of fruit was not despatched until 

 September 17, 1905, yet by the end of the following 

 November the boxes sent away represented a total of 

 8,500, the weight of fruit sold being 170 tons. Much 

 more, I was told, could have been disposed of, if 

 larger supplies had been available. 



The Great Western Railway Company have entered 

 cordially into the scheme, and have erected, at a cost 

 of 1,000, for the use of the society, a commodious 

 two-story depot immediately adjoining the goods siding 

 at Whitecross Bridge. For this depot the society will 

 pay a rental of 35 a year. The arrangement is one 

 that offers obvious advantages both to the society and 

 to the railway company; but the fact that it should 

 have been made is sufficiently suggestive of the com- 

 munity of interest between railways and traders.* 



* As a further example of what can be done when the railways 

 and the traders act together in their mutual interests, I might refer 

 to the operations of the Newport and District Agricultural 

 Co-operative Trading Society, Limited. This society was formed 

 in the autumn of 1904 by farmers on the estate of the Duke of 

 Sutherland in and around Newport (Salop), with the main idea of 

 effecting economies alike by purchasing agricultural necessaries in 

 wholesale lots, and by having them carried on the railway at the 

 lower rates available for large as compared with small quantities. 

 The initial difficulty lay in the provision of a depot in which the 

 goods purchased by the society in bulk could be warehoused until 

 disposed of among the members ; but this difficulty was surmounted 

 by the London and North- Western Railway Company undertaking 

 to erect, at their own cost, a depot immediately adjoining their 

 Newport Station, and letting it to the society at a moderate rental. 

 The depot, a building about 25 feet by 18 feet, was duly constructed, 

 and the society, of which the Duke of Sutherland is president and 

 Mr. W. E. Stamer chairman of committee, has had a successful 

 start in the first year of its operations. At the end of 1905 it had 

 seventy-nine members, and the paid-up share capital was ^340 ; but 

 arrangements had been made with the bank for an overdraft. The 

 trading done during the year amounted to over ,7,000, and the net 



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