Light Railways. 
G61 
their energies and capital to other districts where their pro- 
posals meet with better acceptance. 
Closely connected with the demands of the owners and oc- 
cupiers of land are the demands made by public authorities of all 
kinds, both local and national. Mention was made in an earlier 
part of this paper of the remarkable development of light railways 
in Hungary, and in that country the main encouragement that 
has been given to light lines has consisted in a systematic relaxa- 
tion in their favour of all the burdens laid on ordinary railways. 
A Light Railway Bill providing for still larger concessions in the 
same direction is at the present moment before the Reichsrath 
in Austria. Instead of enumerating what the public authorities 
in Hungary and Austria have been and are doing, it will, 
perhaps, be more convenient to translate their concessions into 
their English equivalent. First and foremost, then, these lines 
would be exempted entirely from passenger duty. Secondly, 
the Post Office, instead of driving a hard bargain for the con- 
veyance of the mails, w r ould cheerfully pay to the railway 
company the whole sum that the mails would have cost had 
they continued to go across country by cart. 1 Thirdly, the 
companies’ earnings would be exempted from income-tax, the 
dividend warrants would not need receipt stamps, and transfers 
of stocks and shares would not be subject to the present heavy 
duty of 10s. per cent. The local authorities from County down 
to Parish Council would either exempt the railway company 
from rates altogether, or at worst would rate them merely on the 
agricultural value of the land that they occupied, and not, like 
ordinary railways, on the entire net profits of their undertaking. 
Even without the example of Austria and Hungary before us, 
these exemptions from taxation are obviously justifiable as a 
question of principle, for it is most illogical that the State and 
1 Let me instance how our Post Office at present helps these small under- 
takings. The Clogher Valley is a small line in Ireland built under the pro- 
visions of the Tramways Act, 1883. Though it has done a good deal to 
develop its district it only just pays its working expenses. The Post Office, 
however, found its trains from the outset very convenient for the conveyance 
of parcel traffic. Accordingly it called upon the company to carry them 
under the provisions of the Postal Acts. The company of course complied, and 
in due time applied for payment for so doing. “ No,” said the Post Office, 
“ you must not come to us, you must go to the Eailway Clearing House, which 
apportions between the companies the receipts for railway-borne parcels.” 
To the Clearing House accordingly the Clogher Valley Company went, only to 
be met by the statement that its line was a tramway, not a railway, and that 
there was nothing for it there. Back to the Post Office the company accord- 
ingly went, and was there met with the reply that the company was compelled 
to carry the traffic, and whether it got payment or not for it was a matter 
that concerned not her Majesty’s Post Office. I tell this tale as I heard it 
on the spot in Ireland in 1890. Whether the Government has relented since 
then I cannot say. 
