278 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



By the decisions of the Railway Commissioners and 

 the Court of Appeal in the case of the Mansion House 

 Association v. the Great Western Company, where 

 the Association made general complaints of unreasonable 

 increases in the rates on certain classes of goods, it was 

 settled that such complaints could be made under the 

 Act of 1894, by an authorised association, without proof 

 of loss to any individual trader, or without any trader 

 paying money into court. 



Lord Esher held that as the Company had raised 

 their rates in respect of a whole class of articles, instead 

 of looking into the question as to each of those articles 

 " in an ordinary, fair, business manner " before they 

 raised the rates, in which case they would have had 

 ready to hand reasons why they raised the rate on each 

 particular article. Unless, therefore, they could justify 

 the whole by some common reason, they could not call 

 on the complainants to name the articles individually 

 complained of The onus of proof, therefore, remains 

 on the company, as in the case of an individual com- 

 plaining trader, and an increase of rate on a particular 

 article. 



The present state of the law as to the extent of the 

 right given to traders under section 33 of the Act of 

 1888, to have the component parts of a rate, when it is 

 within the maximum, split up and separately stated, 

 has been decided on April 14th, 1896, in the case of the 

 New Union Mill Company v. the Great Western 

 Railway Company. The judgment of Mr Justice 

 Collins and the Commissioners was that the Act is 

 complied with if the company choose to state, on their 

 own responsibility, that the whole charge is for con- 

 veyance only. The court cannot compel a company to 

 state charges for terminals if the company choose to 

 say, " We make no charge for terminals." The Act of 

 1894 makes no difference. " It may or may not be 

 that section 4 of the Act of 1894 does entitle a person 

 under those circumstances to a rebate, notwithstanding 

 the railway company assert that no charge is made in 



