§ MR. HEDGES (Kent, Tonbridge)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been drawn to the complaints from coal merchants, in consequence of the refusal of the railway companies to pay compensation for loss of coal in transit, and of their insistence on the payment of the freight charges on the gross weight of the consignment as declared by the colliery owners at the point of loading, irrespective of any loss in weight that may have occurred in transit; and whether, having regard to the fact that the allowance for shortage by the colliery owners is now almost entirely suspended he is prepared to take any action in the matter.
§ MR. KEARLEYThe question of the withdrawal by the railway companies of free carriage of a wastage allowance has been brought to the notice of the Department under the Railway and Canal Traffic Acts and is at the moment being considered, but so far as the matter is one between the colliery owner and the merchant the Board have no authority to intervene.