REPORT OF THE APPLE AND PEAR CONFERENCE. 



101 



wider one as to the duties that were imposed on the railways 

 when the rights to construct their undertakings were conferred 

 upon them. 



There can be no misunderstanding on this point, for, leaving 

 the general subject and dealing with it in its particular charac- 

 ter, it will be, found that every application to Parliament for a 

 Bill to acquire land and construct a railway has been based 

 upon the ground that it was for the public benefit that it should be 

 granted. 



Sight must not be lost of the fact that every Railway Act con- 

 tains a schedule of the maximum tolls and rates that it is allowed 

 to make for its services. But at the same time it should be 

 borne in mind that a large number of the subsequent railway 

 privileges were granted upon the assumption that there would be 

 a legitimate competition for traffic within reasonable limits. 



This result has certainly not been brought about, for it will 

 be found that a most extraordinary condition of things exists with 

 our railway system, as while there is the keenest possible com- 

 petition among the principal lines to obtain the traffic, there is 

 at the same time the strongest possible union amongst them as to 

 the rates and charges they shall levy on that traffic. 



The position of the metropolis in this matter is the most 

 anomalous one conceivable, and will be discovered in the fact 

 that it has been left to the eight railway companies that convey 

 the daily food of its four million inhabitants, together with the 

 Corporation, who conduct the markets so as to render them 

 monopolies in the hands of a few favoured traders, to continue 

 levying charges in the form of excessive rates, commissions, and 

 middle-men's profits that are gigantic in proportion to the "octroi " 

 collected on the boundaries of most continental cities, which we 

 look upon as excessive, but which, in any event, is legitimately 

 collected and expended as public money in the public service. 



With us home-grown produce is, beyond all question, the 

 food of the people for the people, and its economical and ready 

 transmission from the fields of production to the centres of 

 consumption is a matter that directly affects, for good or ill, 

 producers and consumers. The excessive charges now made are 

 found to so largely influence the welfare of the nation, that the 

 question of railway rates has forced itself forward as a subject 

 of general consideration. 



The policy of the railway companies is both short-sighted and 

 cruel ; the former, because if farmers had the inducement to cul- 

 tivate their lands, by the chance of a reasonable outlet, they 

 would undoubtedly do so, and the railways would have the con- 

 veyance of the produce, which would furnish them with a large 

 revenue from a source where they now receive nothing ; the 

 latter, because it is well known that the bulk of the money 

 realised by home produce is expended in home labour, and the 



