580 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— F. 



is the question ' What is to be the relation of motor road transport to the railways ? * 

 It is with this question that the paper is specifically concerned, though incidentally 

 other problems connected therewith are considered. Road transport has proved 

 a severe competitor to the railways in regard to certam types of traffic, though it 

 has also brought traffic to the rail. On balance, however, the railways have been the 

 losers. Mutual recriminations between rail and road operators have compUcated 

 the question, e.g. the railways assert that ' road transport is a subsidised industry.' 



Competition has not furnished a solution to the road and rail problem, and there 

 has been an increasing tendency to search for some compromise whereby the two 

 methods might be co-ordinated to their mutual advantage and to the benefit of the 

 public. Both road and rail transport are essential to the community, since each can 

 render certain services which cannot be so well performed by the other. The economic 

 basis of co-ordination lies m this differentiation of function. In consequence great 

 advantages would result from co-ordination, but owing to the fact that their economic 

 spheres overlap there are many practical difficulties. 



Co-ordination might take various forms : (1) co-operation between independent 

 concerns ; (2) co-ordination based on the provision of railway-owned road services 

 or on financial control of road concerns by railways ; (3) quasi-legal co-ordination. 

 These various methods are examined, and the case for and against the grant of extended 

 road powers to railways is incidentally, though briefly, discussed. 



Is co-ordination to the public interest ? On the one hand co-ordination would 

 eliminate wasteful competition, but on the other it might lead to monopohstic 

 exploitation of the pubUc, to restriction of facUities or to inefficiency. It is probable 

 that any complete scheme of co-ordination would result in a demand for the setting 

 up of public bodies to control the co-ordinated transport system in the interests of 

 the public. 



Monday, September 10. 

 Presidential Address by Prof. Allyn Young on Increasing Returns and 

 Economic Progress. (See p. 118.) 



Joint Discussion with Section J on The Nature and Present Position of 

 Skill in Industry. (Prof. T. H. Pear ; Prof. H. Clay ; Mr. C. G. 

 Renold.) 



Tuesday, September 11. 



Joint Discussion with Section M on The Incidence of Taxation in Agri- 

 culture. (Mr. J. A. Venn ; Dr. J. S. King.) 



What are popularly referred to as the ' burdens ' on British agriculture are four 

 in number, viz. : tithe, land-tax, rates and income-tax. Peculiar in origin and in 

 their economic characteristics, the two first afiect the owners of land. Rates, nominally 

 falling on tenants, are, in varying degree, transferred to landlords, who also contribute 

 the bulk of the income-tax derived from the industry. All have been progressively 

 modified, but tithe and land-tax, although redeemable, are very uneven and arbitrary 

 in incidence. Each Royal Commission appointed during the last century advocated 

 remission of taxation to agriculturists and, accordingly, every period of depression 

 has witnessed Statutory action. In 1896 and in 1923 rates on agricultural land were 

 halved, in 1929 they are to disappear ; land-tax has been reduced from a maximum 

 of 4s. to Is. in the pound ; tithe has been stabilised (perhaps without due considera- 

 tion of possible future money values) at £105 ; income-tax grants unique privileges 

 to the occupiers of agricultural holdings. Nevertheless, each generation of farmers, 

 supported by the press, continues to protest against the weight of taxation borne by 

 the industry. Analysis shows, however, that even in the past the position was con- 

 siderably exaggerated. Rates on agricultural land, which averaged 2s. 2d. to 2s. 6i. 

 per acre in the eighties and nineties, still stood at under 3s. immediately after the war 

 and little above that figure in 1927-8. The present level is equivalent to £10 per 

 ' farm,' or £13 13s. per ' farmer,' and represents less than 2 per cent, of the outgoings 

 on the majority of holdings. Thus it costs from £8 to £10 to produce an acre of 

 cereals, of which 30s. to £2 is accounted for by labour, 30s. by rent and 2s. to 4s. by 

 rates. Tithe, if averaged over the farmed area, amounts to 2s. Qd. per acre, £8 per 



