§ MR. BUCHANAN (Aberdeenshire, E.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the new rates, particularly on grain, oil-cake, coal, and lime, charged by the Great North of Scotland Railway Company, which are seriously complained of by the agricultural community in Aberdeenshire; and whether the Great North of Scotland Railway Company is included in the Railway Companies Association, and will have to adopt the same reductions in their rates as the other Railway Companies?
DR. FARQUHARSON (Aberdeenshire, W.)Has the right hon. Gentleman any cognizance of the resolutions passed by the traders in the North of Scotland complaining of the railway rates, and asking that they should be put on a more equitable footing?
§ MR. MUNDELLAI cannot answer the last question, as I have not had sufficient notice of it. A complaint as regards the new rates on grain, oil-cake, and coal proposed to be charged by the Great North of Scotland Railway Company has been laid before the Board of Trade. The Great North of Scotland Railway Company is included in the Railway Companies Association, and I am calling the attention of the Scotch and Irish Companies to the letters received from the principal English companies and asking for similar assurances as to reduction of rates.
§ MR. BUCHANANI would ask whether the right hon. Gentleman will insist upon a reduction of the rates in Scotland as well as in England?
§ MR. MUNDELLAWe have no power to insist. We are dealing with that which has been voluntarily offered by the English Railway Companies.
§ MR. WEIRIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the railway rate for a ton of rough castings from Arbroath to London is 41s. 8d. per ton at owner's risk, and 51s. 8d. at company's risk, or nearly 10s. per ton more than the cost of the raw material.
§ [No answer was given.]