THE RURAL PROBLEM 



93 



home to the minds of landlords and farmers by stating that 

 the difference of rates charged between foreign and home 

 grain is equal to a tax of 5s. per acre against the home 

 growers." The rates for fruit have been estimated to give 

 a bounty of 30s. per acre against the home grower. 



It was given in evidence before the last Royal Commission 

 on Railways that the farmers of the Midlands had to pay 

 £400,000 on £1,000,000 of produce. The higher rates in 

 themselves would kill agriculture by raising the price to the 

 consumer and so limiting the consumption; but, accom- 

 panied as they are by lower rates to the foreigner, they 

 operate also to spoil the chances of the British agriculturist 

 in the market as it exists. 



The rates from the principal ports are much lower than 

 from other places, which injures agriculture, as the port is 

 not an agricultural centre. Taking Driffield as a good 

 agricultural centre in the north, and comparing the rates 

 from there with the rates from Hull, we get the following 

 results : 



The wool rate from Hull to Leicester works out at l*488d. 

 per ton per mile ; but from Sclby to Bradford it works out at 

 5419d. per ton per mile. The same difference occurs in the 

 case of potatoes and roots, which cost only l # 318d. per ton 

 per mile from Hull to Manchester, but 3*333d. per ton per 

 mile from Goole to Doncaster. 



The most extraordinary instance of preference to the 

 foreigner was given by Mr. Chiozza Money in the House of 

 Commons on February 11th, 1908, when he quoted the case 

 of 100 tons of potatoes, which went from Dundee to New- 

 York and back again to Liverpool for £5 less than it would 

 have cost to take them from Dundee to Liverpool direct. 



The Agricultural Commission reported in May, 1900, as 



