298 History of Inland Transport 



Commissioners any deficit between the amount of their tolls 

 and ^14,000 a year. Under this obligation the railway com- 

 pany paid ^6000 a year for many years ; but in 1890 the 

 obligation was commuted by a payment by the Great Western 

 Railway Company of i 00,000, and by the giving up to them 

 of certain mortgages to which they had become entitled in 

 consideration of the Commissioners discharging them from the 

 liability under their guarantee. In stating these facts in 

 evidence before the Royal Commission on Canals and Water- 

 ways, Mr T. H. Rendell, chief goods manager of the Great 

 Western Railway Company, added (Question 23,834) : " It is 

 desirable to mention that, because it is rather suggested that 

 State aid should be given to enable this very waterway to come 

 into fresh competition with the railway. Of course, if that 

 were so, it would be only fair that the Severn Commissioners 

 should re-imburse the railway company the compensation 

 they have received." 



The acquiring of the Stratford-on-Avon Canal by the 

 Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway was another 

 of many instances of purchase by a railway company being 

 the price of withdrawal of canal opposition to railway Bills. 



By threatening to apply to Parliament for powers to build 

 an opposition railway, the Kennet and Avon Canal Company, 

 in 1851, also induced the Great Western to buy them out, the 

 railway company agreeing to pay 7773 a year for the canal, 

 which has been a loss to them ever since. 



In the same way the London and Birmingham Railway 

 Company, now the London and North- Western, originally 

 acquired control over the Birmingham Canal Navigations as 

 the result of a declared intention on the part of the canal 

 company, in 1845, to seek for powers to build a competing line 

 of railway through the Stour valley. The railway com- 

 pany only overcame the threatened opposition by guar- 

 anteeing the canal company ^4 per share on their capital, 

 obtaining, in return, certain rights and privileges, in regard to 

 control and operation, in the event of their having to make 

 good any deficiency in the revenue. This they have had to do 

 every year since 1874, with the single exception of 1875 ; and 

 down to 1910 the total amount paid by the London and North- 

 Western Railway Company to the proprietors of the Bir- 

 mingham Canal Navigations, under this guarantee, had been 



