Decline of Canals 309 



improving the canals the interest thereon must either be met 

 by means of increased canal charges in which event the 

 canal-users would have no advantage over the railway-users 

 or remain as a permanent burden on the community. 



How the cost of the supplementary charges and services 

 operates in practice may be shown by a reference to the 

 London coal trade, coal being a commodity which is regarded 

 by those who favour State ownership of the canals as one 

 specially adapted for waterway transport. 



Except as regards the consignments of sea-borne coal, the 

 domestic coal supply of London is carried almost exclusively 

 by rail. The trucks can generally go right up to the collieries ; 

 they convey the coal to special and extensive railway sidings, 

 there to await orders ; and they proceed thence, as required, 

 to the suburban railway station or depot nearest to the pre- 

 mises of the actual consumer, in any part of the country ; 

 whereas coal sent by canal would first have to be taken from 

 the colliery to the canal, and there be discharged into the boat, 

 then be conveyed, say, to the Thames, next be transferred from 

 boat to cart, and finally be taken by road across London to 

 destination, with the subsidiary considerations (i) that with 

 each fresh handling the coal would deteriorate in value ; 

 (2) that the traders would lose the advantage of railway coal 

 sidings and station depots ; and (3) that the railway truck 

 is a better unit than the canal boat for the various descriptions 

 or qualities of coal dealt in by the average coal merchant, 

 whose prejudices in favour of rail transport over canal trans- 

 port, when the consumers are not actually located on or quite 

 close to the waterway, can thus be accounted for by strictly 

 business considerations. 



The conclusion is forced upon one that, notwithstanding 

 the useful purposes which a certain number of canals are still 

 serving, any resuscitation of canals in general, or even any 

 provision of improved cross-country canal routes passing over 

 the " grand ridge," at the cost of an indefinite number of 

 millions to the country, can hardly be regarded as coming 

 within the range of sound economics. It certainly is favoured 

 by a larger number of traders than the comparatively small 

 proportion who would be able, or willing, to use the canals 

 when they had been improved ; but this support is directly 

 due to a belief that nationalisation though what is proposed 



