SELECT COMMITTEE OF 1893 229 



A Select Committee of the House of Commons was soon 

 afterwards appointed to inquire into the manner in which 

 the companies had exercised the new powers conferred upon 

 them by the Rates and Charges Order Confirmation Acts, 



1891 and 1892, and to consider whether it was desirable to 

 adopt any other means of settling differences arising between 

 the companies and the public with respect to the rates and 

 conditions of charge for the conveyance of goods. The Cham- 

 ber took steps, in conjunction with the Mansion House 

 Association, to lay evidence before this Select Committee, 

 as to the effect of the new rates and conditions on agricultural 

 produce and animals. The Select Committee reported to 

 Parliament on 4th December, and their report was found by 

 the Railway Committee of the Chamber to be satisfactory 

 in so far as it condemned emphatically the general rise in 

 rates made on the previous 1st January, and it recommended 

 a method for dealing with such increases. The Chamber's 

 suggestion that the Board of Trade should be empowered 

 to reduce any rate if found to be unreasonable, notwithstanding 

 that it did not exceed the statutory powers of the company 

 was not adopted by the Select Committee. They recom- 

 mended instead that traders should be at liberty to go to the 

 Railway Commission, and that the Commission should be 

 empowered to decide whether the increase was reasonable 

 or not ; but this was only to apply to rates raised since 1892. 

 The Chamber much objected to this limitation of the power 

 of appeal to rates raised since 1892, as they considered 

 that it involved the presumption that all rates existing in 



1892 were reasonable, and this the Chamber strongly 

 disputed. 



Evidence was laid before the Select Committee of the 

 continued existence of preferential treatment of foreign 

 produce, and it was distinctly alleged, and the companies 

 did not contradict the statement, that while the rates on 

 grain from inland towns were all raised on 1st January, 1892, 

 the rates on grain from seaport towns were in 110 case increased. 

 The Select Committee, however, made no reference to this 

 question in their report. 



