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The Revif.vv of Reviews. 



almost negligible. First, Ihe wagon conlaining his 

 goods has to wait until it can be shunted on to a train, 

 which train again must wait its turn to get right of 

 way. These processes of shunting and marshalling 

 occupy an enormous time as well as an enormous space. 

 If the wagon has to pass from one railway system 

 to another, hours or days may elapse before it continues 

 on its journey. The intricacies of the process are too 

 great to be dealt with here, but as a shunting yard 

 may have as much as thirty mile? of sidings, it is 

 evident that there is scope for vast delay. 



Even if the wagon is going over one system direct 

 to its destination, further delay must be expected 

 when the time comes to unload the goods. If anything 

 could be less admirable than the shunting yard it is 

 the goods yard of a great railway. Without system, 

 struggling with each other, the vans and carts seek .to 

 approach the wagon or the shed. The handling, the 

 cost of labour, and the appalling waste of time all 

 make railway carriage a particularly impossible method 

 of sending goods to market. And meanwhile the small 

 producer is unable to reap the full benefit of his labour, 

 being often forced to feed the pigs with produce which 

 might materially help to swell his revenue were he 

 able to market it. 



We have seen that the railways are hopelessly and, 

 it may well be, irretrievably handicapped in the 

 direction of fulfilling their national, function. 15ut 

 something must be done, even if railway directors are 

 content to draw their fees and shareholders to forgo 

 their dividends. Happily, there is an easy and a simply 

 achieved way out of the present state of affairs. 



The railways may be good or they may be bad as 

 recards their permanent way, but there is no question 

 that the roads, high roads, and secondary roads of the 

 kingdom are excellent and well kept up. They should 

 be the natural arteries along which the produce of the 

 countryside .should flow towards the centres of 

 consumption. The railways have developed an extra- 

 ordinary centralisation upon London, and the producer 

 has come to think that there is no real market save 

 the metropolis. And yet there are only some five 

 millions of people there as compared with forty millions 

 in other centres. Once the roads are accepted as the 

 natural channels for carriage of goods, then inevitably 

 local centralisation will lake the place of the present 

 undue rush to London. When we say the roads must 

 be used, we do not wish to multiply the slow-moving 

 market gardeners' carts, drawn by intelligent horses 

 and in charge of sleepy and unintelligent humans, 

 which wend their way every night froih Essex and 

 Kent to Covenl Garden. 



Just as the road is the natural channel, so the light 

 motor-van or lorry is the ideal vehicle for the develop- 

 ment of this country. It will enable produce to be 

 transported with a minimum of handling from the 

 home of the producer to the centre of consumption. 

 The rate of actual running will Ik- approximately that 

 given for goods trains— twenty miles an hour — but there 

 will be no waste in shunting, marshalling in trains and 

 discharging. The accompanying map shows clearly 

 how completely the country could be covered by a 

 series of circles of collection around the great centres 

 of consumption. A twenty-five miles maximum run, 

 or, say, ninety minutes on the road, and the produce 

 would be on sale, fresh and commanding better prices. 

 The same motors could easily do two or more journeys 

 a day, especially those well within the outer radius. 

 Where goods had to go to London, they could be saved 

 all the tielay and expense of branch railway lines 

 and be motored direct to the nearest station in 

 connection with the terminus. Railways cannot hope 

 to compete with organised motor traction locally 

 centralised. 



That is all very well, it may be said ; but how are 

 you going to induce your producer to buy his motor- 

 lorry, and how is he going to afford it ? The British 

 War Office has answered these questions by the recent 

 issue of a scheme for the subsidising of private motor 

 lorries capable of carrying a load of either 30 cwt. or 

 3 tons. 'I'his step has been taken because the military 

 authorities have recognised that for mobilisation 

 purposes, as well as for transport of troops and stores, 

 the roads and the motor can easily beat the railwa\s. 

 The scheme of subsidy is well thought out and com- 

 prehensive. The lorric.-- shall be of makes and types 

 approved by the War Office. They must accomplish 

 a trial of up to eighty miles satisfactorily before accept- 

 ance and enrolment : — 



The i^cncral conditions provide that each iftotor-lorry will be 

 subsidised for a period of three years from the date of accept- 

 ance, and the owner will receive in respect thereof a purchase 

 minimum, ami an annual subsidy at the following rates : 



A purchase premium of ^50 will be paid in six half-yearly 

 instalments of jCS 6s. 8d. e.ich, in arrear. The first instal- 

 ment lo be paid in six months fiom date of acceptance. 



A further purchase premium of j^io will be paid in respect 

 of each of the said motor-lorries which is provided with a 

 body of an approvt:d ly|K- for the carriage of meat slung from 

 Ihe roof, jiayable in six half-yearly inst.alments of ;^I 13s. 4d. 

 each, in arrear, payable at the s.imc limes as the instalments 

 of the purchaser premium of;^50. 



.■\n annual subsidy of /^20 per motor-lorry will be paid 

 half-yearly, in arrear, the first instalment to be paid in six 

 months from the date of acceptance. 



The owner of a siilisidiscd motor-lorry without a special body 

 will thus receive the sum of /Jiio, spread over a period of three 

 years, provided he conforms to the conditions. 



The owner will not be entitled to any payment, whether on 

 account of purchase premium or .annual subsidy, unless the 



