§ MR. J. W. BARCLAYasked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether, since the Railway Commission has full powers to deal with preferential rates to Foreign goods, the Board of Trade will exercise the powers imposed by the 3rd section of the Traffic Act, 1854, and instruct the Attorney General to take proceedings before the Railway Commissioners to enforce the provisions of the Traffic Act?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAINThe section referred to by the hon. Member merely authorizes the Board of Trade to certify to the Attorney General in ease of a violation or contravention of the Act of 1854, and upon this certificate it is lawful for the Attorney General to apply to the Court. The Act of 1854 has, however, been amended by the Regulation of Railways Act, 1873. The Act of 1873 permits a complaint of a contravention of Section 2 of the Act of 1854 to be made, not only by a person aggrieved, but by any person appointed by the Board of Trade, or by a Municipal or Public Corporation, if furnished with a certificate from the Board of Trade. Local Authorities have availed themselves of this power; and it appears to me that any allegation of preferential rates would be more properly and more effectually brought under the notice of the Commissioners by such Local Authority than by the Board of Trade.