508 History of Inland Transport 



of collective transport under the most effective and economical 

 conditions. 



It is thus mainly in the direction of railway feeders that 

 the need for increased transport facilities exists to-day. 



In this absence of any general necessity for additional rail- 

 ways, the policy of the railway companies of late years has 

 been directed more to the consolidation and economical 

 working of the existing system of lines. This policy has 

 especially aimed at the furtherance of those mutual agreements 

 and amalgamations which, as we have seen, have constituted 

 a prominent phase in the development of railways from a very 

 early period in their history. Present-day tendencies in this 

 direction are especially due to the fact that working expenses 

 have greatly increased while the powers of the companies 

 to increase their charges are still subject to the restrictions 

 of the Act of 1894, under which they may be required to 

 justify before the Railway and Canal Commission any in- 

 crease in a rate since the 3ist of December, 1892. Increase 

 of expenditure is found in the higher wages bills, in the 

 ever-expanding items of rates and taxes, in the heavier cost 

 of raw materials, in the greater amount of clerical and other 

 work resulting from the sending of frequent small consign- 

 ments in place of consignments in bulk, and in the provision 

 of greater conveniences and luxuries in travel. 



An increased volume of traffic has, to a certain extent, 

 compensated for these heavier expenses ; but it has not done 

 so sufficiently, and the ideal remedy has appeared to lie in the 

 direction of effecting economies in operation and management, 

 either by individual companies or through arrangements 

 between two or more, to their mutual advantage, and without, 

 as the companies have claimed, any disadvantage to the public. 



In some instances companies have had to grant such con- 

 cessions to local communities as a means of overcoming 

 threatened opposition to their proposed arrangements that 

 the value of the advantages eventually obtained has been 

 represented almost by a negative quantity. In other instances 

 the opposition has been so keen, and the " prices of assent " 

 have been so exacting, that the companies concerned have 

 preferred to abandon their schemes rather than go on with 

 them. In still other instances companies have refrained from 

 attempting to carry out amalgamations requiring Parlia- 



