Tramways, Motor-buses, etc. 455 



tramway promoters, as well as on local authorities, since it 

 abolished the obligation previously devolving upon them to 

 obtain as in the case of a railway company a Private Bill 

 in respect to each fresh line they desired to construct. It 

 authorised them to apply, instead, to the Board of Trade for 

 a Provisional Order which, on its formal confirmation by 

 Parliament, would have all the force of a Private Act. In 

 this way the procedure was both simplified and rendered less 

 costly. 



On the other hand, the Act of 1870 laid down (i) that the 

 assent of the local and road authorities to a new line of tram- 

 way should be obtained ; though where the assent of authori- 

 ties in respect to two-thirds of the mileage was secured the 

 Board of Trade might dispense with that of any other object- 

 ing authority ; (2) that the frontagers were also to have a 

 power of veto ; (3) that the original concession should be 

 granted for a period of twenty-one years only ; and (4) that 

 at the end of such period, or at the end of any subsequent 

 period of seven years, the local authorities should have the 

 option of acquiring the tramway at the " then value " of the 

 plant, without any allowance for compulsory purchase, good- 

 will, prospective profits or other similar consideration. 



So long as these provisions applied to horse tramways only, 

 the companies may not have found them specially oppressive, 

 inasmuch as there was still a prospect of their being able to 

 make a profit within the twenty-one-year period before they 

 were compulsorily bought out at " scrap-iron " rates, while 

 they could expect to realise the value of their stock of horses ; 

 though, in effect, the statutory obligations meant, even then, 

 that towards the end of their tenure the tramway company 

 did not spend a single shilling on the line more than was 

 absolutely necessary to keep it in working order until the 

 day of their eviction arrived, generally grudging even a coat 

 of paint for the cars and refraining from any avoidable labour 

 on the roadway. Individuals, and especially foreign visitors, 

 unacquainted with the facts of the case, might well have con- 

 sidered some of the old tramway systems a discredit to the 

 country. 



When electric traction for tramway operation was intro- 

 duced, there was a natural expectation on the part of the 

 British public that the tramway companies would adopt it 



