754 



REPORT — 1901. 



Act, and the cost of capital for tramway enterprise has consequently heeii 

 increased. 



The great discovery of the application of electricity to tramways came just 

 when the purchase periods in England were running out. There was consequently 

 a long delay in adopting the new invention, and though England ought, but for 

 Parliament, to have" led the world, as it did in railway construction, it has been 

 kept behind other countries, and has suffered social, economic, and industrial loss. 

 There is no other country which had so great a need for electric tramways aa 

 England. 



The corporations have been slow to try experiments owing to their careful 

 trusteeship of the ratepayers' money. 



The method of valuation is more important than the period of purchase. If 

 goodwill is not to be paid fm- there is no adequate motive for developing a busi- 

 ness. The corporations have actually lost on balance, for Avhile Tramway Act 

 price is less than enough for a good tramway it is too much for a bad tramway. It 

 pays the company better, when the piirchase period is approaching, to retain an 

 obsolete equipment, which ought to be scrapped, so as to make the corporation 

 buy it. 



Practically no tramways are now made by companies on Tramways Act terms 

 without modification ; but the retention of the Act on the statute book still does 

 a great deal of injury to tramway enterprise. 



3. Notes on Glasgow Wages in the Nineteenth Century. 

 By A. L. BowLEY, M.A. 



The statistics available for an estimate of the changes in the rates of average 

 wages are verv numerous, but it is only in a few cases that a reliable calculation 

 extending over half a century can be made. 



The following table shows in rough form average money wages (assuming no 

 change iu regularity of employment and averaging over ten or tw-enty years) in 

 various industries, expressed in each case as percentages of their level in the 

 decade 1890-1900 :— 



The general average would probably be affected if allowance were made for 

 such changes in the construction of the working-class population as the growth of 

 the class of partially skilled workers. 



Xo attempt has been made to include any estimate for the changes in the 

 purchasing power of money. 



