TRANSPORT QUESTIONS 153 



Railway Station Depots. 



Another outcome of organised effort is to be found in the 

 setting up at country railway stations of depots to constitute 

 the headquarters of the local agricultural co-operative 

 society in the collection, storing or distribution of members' 

 produce or necessaries consigned or received by rail. 



In the first instance the railway companies themselves 

 constructed these depots, and charged the societies a rental 

 sufficient to cover interest on capital expenditure. There 

 arose, however, the risk that a want of success on the part of 

 a local society might leave the depot on the hands of the 

 railway company. The societies, in turn, say that in certain 

 instances the railway companies, in their desire to assist the 

 movement, incurred greater expenditure in connection with 

 the depots than was really necessary. More recently the 

 railway companies have been reluctant to provide the 

 depots at their own cost, though they have offered facilities 

 to the local societies to build depots for themselves by letting 

 them have the necessary land in return for a nominal rental ; 

 and this, probably, will be found the better arrangement. 



In one or two instances the difficulty has been solved by 

 the railway company partitioning oft part of an existing 

 goods shed at a country station, and letting such portion to 

 the local society. In still other places, where only a limited 

 amount of accommodation has been required for such 

 purposes as egg collecting and grading, the railway company 

 have provided for the society — and again at a nominal rental 

 — an old goods van which had been retired from active 

 service on the line. 



At Holsworthy (Devonshire) the London and South 

 Western Railway Company constructed some years ago, on 

 their station premises, a slaughter-house for the convenience 

 of dealers purchasing fat cattle in the district, the cattle 

 being taken to the station, killed in the slaughter-house, and 

 consigned by train in such quantities to the London markets 

 that at certain times of the year six or eight truck loads of 

 meat are dispatched. The members of the local agricultural 



