2 8o AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



and from Bletchley, the defence of the Company was 

 wholly in the cartage charges. But while the Company 

 showed an increase in the cost of cartage of 12 to 15 

 per cent, within the last ten years, the increases, if 

 treated as increases only in respect of the cartage item, 

 are shown to be not 12 to 15 per cent, increase on the 

 old cartage charges, but from 28 to 36 per cent. " It 

 follows, then, either that the increase in the cartage 

 charge has been excessive, or, as is more probable, that 

 the increase has never in effect been made as suggested, 

 but has fallen to a large extent upon the railway portion 

 of the aggregate rate." Judgment was therefore given, 

 and an order made to discontinue the increases. 



It is to be noted in this and other cases that the 

 limits imposed by the several Acts of Parliament 

 obviously preclude that complete disclosure of the 

 railway accounts, and distinct proof of the several items 

 of costs of service and of details of charges, by which 

 alone a completely satisfactory decision could be arrived 

 at. The real amounts charged for cartage, and the 

 real cost of cartage previous to 1893, were clearly 

 matters of more or less probable conjecture, and not of 

 demonstration. 



In connection with this and other cases, attention 

 should be drawn to the general unwillingness of railway 

 companies to treat the decisions of the courts in these 

 cases as a standard, by which to regulate other similar 

 charges. The policy seems to be, as far as possible, to 

 compel individual agriculturists and traders to go to the 

 expense of proceedings, rather than to re-cast charges, 

 which have been indirectly shown by these test cases 

 to be indefensible in part or whole. 



In conclusion, it cannot be denied that the present 

 state of the law and of its administration as to railway 

 rates, so far as the interests of agriculturists are con- 

 cerned, is confused, incomplete, and unsatisfactory. 



It might be conceivable to leave the railway com- 

 panies and the traders free to arrive at adjustments by 

 -commercial and economic friction. But this has not 

 been done. The State has undertaken to supervise and 



