PREFERENTIAL RATES COMMITTEE 235 



The Private Sidings on Railways Act was passed this 

 year. It requires railway companies to give all reasonable 

 facilities for the junction of such sidings with the railway 

 and working of private sidings or private branch railways. 



1905. 



The principal witness for the Chamber before the Depart- 

 mental Committee was Mr. Thomas Waghorn, who confined 

 his attention to two points, viz., (a) the meat rates from 

 Birkenhead and Liverpool to London, as compared with 

 the rates from North Devon to London, and (b) fruit rates 

 from several stations in Kent, as compared with Kent port 

 rates. His remedies were summarised in the Railway Com- 

 mittee's report, which the Council adopted on 4th April, 

 1905, viz.: 



" Your Committee therefore suggest that the Railway and 

 Canal Traffic Acts, 1854-1904, be amended in the sense of sub- 

 stituting the Board of Agriculture for the Board of Trade in 

 such sections of the Acts as regulate the settlement of differences 

 on disputes arising in respect of the conveyance of agricultural, 

 dairy or market garden produce, and, in particular, that the 

 Board of Agriculture should be empowered to prosecute in cases 

 of general importance to agriculturists before the Railway Com- 

 missioners in accordance with the provisions of Sec. 6 of the 

 Regulations of Railways Act, 1873." 



Mr. Edwin Clements, who was a witness on behalf of the 

 Mansion House Association, also spoke for the Central 

 Chamber, and he, too, put forward the second part of the 

 foregoing proposal. There were logical grounds for this 

 contention, inasmuch as the Department of Agriculture for 

 Ireland was given similar powers by Sec. 17 of the Agricul- 

 ture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 1899. 



1906. 



The Departmental Committee presented its report in April, 

 and on 29th May the Council adopted a report from its Com- 

 mittee, from which the following are extracts : 



; ' The fears expressed when the composition of the Committee 

 was made known are shown by the report to have been well 



