§ MR. MACLURE (Lancashire, S.E., Stretford)asked the President of the Board of Trade whether it was a fact 1002 that the Board are requiring every railway company who deposit proposals for a revised classification of traffic and revised schedule of maximum rates, under "The Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1888," to pay a fixed sum of £50 irrespective of the importance of its undertaking and its financial position; under what authority and by whom the fee of £50, irrespective of the ability of the company to pay it, has been fixed, and what sum has been received by the Board of Trade, and for what purpose the money is required, and whether any scheme has been devised as to its expenditure; and whether he would consider the propriety and justice of exempting those railway companies which are earning nothing for their shareholders, and charging the expenses upon those which are remunerative undertakings in some general proportion to their magnitude and earnings?
§ *THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, W.The Board of Trade have fixed £50 as the fee to be paid by every railway company depositing a revised classification of merchandize and schedule of maximum rates. The fee is fixed by rules made by the Board of Trade under the provisions of Section 35 of the Railway and Canal Act, 1888, and the money will be applied as an appropriation in aid of the expenses arising upon the settlement of the classifications and schedules. I have already dispensed with part of the fee in certain cases, and I will carefully consider any application coming from a company who are bonâ fide unable to pay without detriment to their creditors. But it must be remembered that the labour and expense of settling a schedule does not vary with the size of the company, and that £50 is not an unreasonable sum to ask from any solvent company for the work performed.