LEGISLATION NECESSARY 28 I 



to some extent regulate the charges made by the rail- 

 ways, in view of the qualified monopoly that has been 

 secured to them. The object of such regulation is that, 

 while the vast capital invested in railways should be 

 fairly protected, the industries of the country should be 

 enabled to have their products and their raw materials 

 carried at reasonable rates which do not confiscate their 

 possible profits, nor give unfair advantages to one set of 

 interests as against another, nor operate to restrict the 

 development of trade. Now that it has been recognised 

 as a proper function for State control, it is certainly not 

 desirable that the legal and administrative machinery 

 for this object should be inadequate, as the review of 

 the cases referred to, and the considerations by which 

 the judgments were governed, compels us to believe. 



Further legislation is therefore needed to enable 

 traders to bring to the test, and the courts to determine 

 the reasonableness of all rates, and of any part of a rate, 

 whether made or increased before 1893 or not, and 

 within the maxima fixed by the Provisional Order Acts 

 of 1 89 1 and 1892, and more especially to enable both 

 traders and the courts to test with precision the real 

 cost of all services and accommodation provided by 

 railways, and the relation of the charges and rates 

 imposed in respect of such services to the cost so 

 determined. Power should also be taken to decide all 

 minor points arising between traders and the railway 

 companies by the county court procedure, or some cheap 

 and simple delegation of the duties of the Railway 

 Commission. 



I am also of opinion, in view of the observations of 

 several of the judges who have had to give decisions in 

 respect of section 27 of the Act of 1888, that legislation 

 is necessary to indicate more clearly what weight is to 

 be attached to considerations of competing routes as a 

 justificat-ion for differences of rates as between one place, 

 and one set of traders and another. 



