The Railway System To-day 369 



presumptive amount is arrived at in regard to the lines by 

 calculating the amount of net earnings the railway is able to 

 make through its occupation of the particular length of line 

 that passes through the parish in question, and according 

 to the actual value of such length of line as an integral part 

 of one concern. 



The extent of these net earnings is ascertained, in effect, 

 by first taking the gross receipts on all the traffic that passes 

 through the parish, and then making a variety of deductions 

 therefrom. The cost of construction of the railway does not 

 enter into consideration at all. The calculations are on what 

 is called the " parochial earnings principle " that is to say, 

 the amount earned in the parish, and not the amount received 

 from traffic arising in the parish. The railway company may 

 have no station in the place, and the amount of traffic derived 

 from the parish may be practically nil ; but the assessment 

 of the line, on the basis mentioned, is followed out, all the 

 same. 



The main principle is the same in Scotland and Ireland, 

 but with this important difference in detail : that in each of 

 those countries a railway is first valued as a whole, the total 

 value being then apportioned among the several rating areas. 



It will be seen that the taxation of a railway line as distinct 

 from that of railway buildings is, to all intents and purposes, 

 the enforcement of a toll, on all traffic carried, for the privilege 

 of passing through the parish concerned ; while there is no 

 suggestion, as there was in the case of turnpike roads, that 

 those who collect the toll confer an advantage on those by 

 whom the toll is paid. The turnpike trustees did provide a 

 road, and they were, also, under an obligation to keep it in 

 order. The toll-payers thus got some return for their money, 

 and, though the trade of the district, or of the country, was 

 taxed, it was, also, directly facilitated by the toll-receivers. 

 The railway company, on the other hand, provide and main- 

 tain their own road, without putting the parish to the slightest 

 expense, yet the parish is authorised to levy upon them what is, 

 not only a toll, but a supplementary Income Tax for local 

 purposes, based on the principle of the profits the company are 

 supposed to make in the parish, often only because, for 

 geographical reasons, it is necessary their lines should pass 

 through it in going from one part of the country to another. 

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