DEFECTS OF ACT UNDUE PREFERENCE 273 



increases made in rates, it was made difficult, if not 

 impossible, to go into the constituent elements of the 

 whole rate so as to determine, in the only complete and 

 satisfactory way, whether the increase was reasonable or 

 not, and (2) that the Act was legalising rates existing in 

 1892, whether reasonable or not, and so to some extent 

 defeating the purpose and intentions of Parliament in the 

 legislation of 1888, and subsequent years. 



These objections seem well founded, and the first of 

 them has received some illustration in the arguments on 

 which the recent judgments in the Northampton case, 

 by the Railway Commissioners and the Court of Appeal, 

 and in other decided cases, upon which comments are 

 made further on, seem to have been based. 



The precise value of the existing law, as a remedy 

 against undue preferences and unreasonable rates, is 

 best measured by some recent judgments of the 

 Railway Commission. 



The cases of undue preference depend on the in- 

 terpretation of section 27 of the Act of 1888. That 

 section throws the onus of proof on the company to 

 justify differences of charges to different traders or 

 districts for similar merchandise and for similar services, 

 specifically empowers the court, or the commissioners, 

 to take into consideration whether the differential charge 

 is necessary for the purpose of securing in the interests 

 of the public, the traffic in respect of which it is made, 

 and whether the inequality cannot be removed without 

 unduly reducing the rates charged to the complainant, 

 and especially provides that, in the case of foreign versus 

 home produce, no difference of treatment shall be sanc- 

 tioned " in respect of the same or similar services." 



In the case of the Liverpool Corn Trade Association v. 

 the London and North Western Railway Company, 

 decided in 1890 in favour of the complainants, undue 

 preference was alleged in respect of a charge of 8s 4d 

 a ton for 2-ton lots on corn from Cardiff to Birmingham, 

 : the distance being taken as 127 miles, whereas 12s gd 

 i per ton was charged from Liverpool to Birmingham, 

 taken as ninety-eight miles, on 2-ton lots, and us 3d on 



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