230 



Railway Rates. 



inspected by any person during all reasonable hours without the 

 payment of a fee : — 



I. 



From the Secretary, Board of Agriculture, to the Secretary, 

 Board of Trade. 



"June 1 8th, 1902. 



" Sir, — I am directed by the President of the Board of 

 Agriculture to inform you that representations have been 

 addressed to him by the Hull and District Fruit Buyers' 

 Association, Limited, with regard to the disadvantages suffered 

 by the Hull vegetable and fruit trade owing to the action of 

 the railway companies. 



" It is alleged, in the first place, that preferential treatment 

 is accorded by railway companies to consignments of fruit 

 and vegetables despatched from the Continent, via Hull, to 

 inland towns in this country. It appears, for example, that the 

 through rate for onions in 4-ton lots from Rotterdam to 

 Nottingham is 16s. a ton, including wharfage and labour in Hull, 

 which must amount to about is., whereas if the onions are sent 

 in the first instance to a Hull merchant, who afterwards forwards 

 them, in the same crates and without breaking bulk, to 

 Nottingham, the cost will amount to 20s. per ton, and will 

 include the following charges : — 



s. d. 



Rate for any quantity of onions from Rotterdam to 



Hull ... 8 6 per ton. 



Rate for onions, in 4-ton lots, from Hull to 



Nottingham... ... ... ... ... ... 10 o per ton. 



Wharfage... ... ... ... ... ... ... o 6 per ton. 



Labour ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1 o per ton. 



" Complaint is also made of the great delay in the con- 

 veyance of produce by goods trains, whereby produce put 

 on rail at Hull, to be delivered in Liverpool or Manchester, 

 arrives at its destination later than consignments despatched to 

 these towns at the same time from London. 



" The Association further represent that, while the canals 

 would, in many instances, prove serviceable for the conveyance 

 of vegetables and fruit, consignors are debarred from utilising 

 these channels of distribution owing to the existence of agree- 

 ments between the canal companies and the railway companies 

 which bind the former to maintain their rates at what is 



