i9o6.j Report on Railway Rates. 145 



to railway rates by co-operation. They point out that the most 

 effective way in which the home producers can claim and can 

 obtain lower rates is to combine and co-operate with the object 

 of sending their produce in larger quantities and packed so as to 

 give good loading in the trucks. The companies not only desire 

 and are willing to give every assistance to bring about such co- 

 operation, but some of them point to the special efforts which 

 they have already made and are continuing to make in this 

 direction, though hitherto their efforts have met with little 

 success. Combination and co-operation on the Continent have, 

 it is stated, been of great advantage in enabling the foreign 

 produce to be imported into this country, but here it appears to 

 be difificult to induce the farmers to co-operate. 



The desirability of co-operation seems to be so generally 

 recognised that it is to be regretted that its adoption should 

 make so little progress, but some of the railway companies seem 

 to think that the unwillingness of the farming industry to com- 

 bine is gradually though slowly being overcome, and that better 

 progress will be made in the future. The Committee are of 

 opinion that co-operation affords a practical method of enabling 

 farmers to meet foreign competition and to put themselves in 

 a position to obtain lower railway rates for the conveyance of 

 agricultural produce. Co-operation has the advantage over 

 other suggestions that have been made of being a remedy 

 which the railway companies have shown themselves ready to 

 welcome and assist. 



The majority report which is summarized above is signed by 

 the Earl of Jersey, Sir James Lyle Mackay, Colonel Sir Herbert 

 , Jekyll, Sir C. J. Owens, Colonel W. S. Kenyon-Slaney, M.P., 

 and Mr. J. F. S. Gooday. Mr. E. G. Haygarth Brown differed 

 from his colleagues on the Committee as to the meaning of the 

 term " preferential treatment," and presented his views in 

 a separate report., T^e conclusions at which he arrived are as 

 follows :— . , 



1. Preferential treatment is in some cases accorded to foreign 

 produce in the sense that rates are charged for such produce 

 which are lower in proportion to the cost of the services rendered 

 than the corresponding rates for home produce. 



2. In existing circumstances agriculturists have no practical 



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