Tramways, Motor-buses, etc. 459 



cessive demands of several local bodies that it now appears to 

 the Committee to be wholly unworkable." 



In 1902 Mr Chaplin, at one time President of the Local 

 Government Board, stated that " what local authorities 

 would describe as conditions are regarded by promoters and 

 very often, no doubt, with good reason as neither more nor 

 less than blackmail. This has been the subject of great com- 

 plaint for years, and I do not think I should be going too far 

 if I said that on several occasions it has led to considerable 

 scandals." 



Lest these expressions of opinion may be considered unduly 

 severe by any reader unacquainted with the facts, I turn for 

 some definite data to the " Exhibit to Proof of Evidence," 

 handed in by Sir Clifton Robinson to the Royal Commission 

 on London Traffic when he was examined before that body 

 in 1904.! 



In the early days of his company (the London United), the 

 local authorities, Sir Clifton said, " had not, perhaps, fully 

 recognised their opportunity," and the company got their 

 assents comparatively cheaply under their first Act in 1898. 



Two years later the price they had to pay for the assents of 

 local authorities to a group of tramways in the Twickenham, 

 Teddington and Hampton district was 202,000, or 16,000 a 

 mile. The requirements imposed on the company took the 

 form of " wayleaves " and of street improvements, the greater 

 part of the latter being entirely apart from the actual needs 

 of the tramway. The improvements in Heath Road, Twicken- 

 ham, giving a 45-ft. roadway, cost for properties and works 

 alone some 30,000. A like sum had to be spent in Hampton 

 and Hampton Wick, where the work done included the setting 

 back of the entire frontage of the Royal Deer Park of Bushey. 



In 1901 the company sought for powers to construct twelve 

 miles of tramway in Kingston-upon-Thames and neigh- 

 bourhood. On this occasion the " concessions " wrung from 



1 Another of the witnesses was the Right Hon. J. W. Lowther, M.P., 

 at that time Chairman of Committees, and now Speaker of the House of 

 Commons. He assured the Commission that the power of "vetoing" 

 tramways had worked a great deal of mischief. He further declared that 

 the Standing Order had been most improperly used for the purpose of 

 extorting all sorts of terms and conditions from tramway companies, and 

 had subjected them to liabilities and disabilities which were never contem- 

 plated by Parliament. 



