Captain MORRISON-BELLasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that the Great Western Railway Company has raised its rates on road stone whilst coal is immune, and that it has refused to take into consideration existing contracts, even though in some cases they were made before the railway strike took place; whether he is aware that, in charging such additional carriage on stone supplies delivered under contract, a grave injustice is being done by the railway company to the trader; and whether, in view of these facts, he will take steps to secure that the new charges imposed upon merchandise under the Railway Act of 1912 are more equitable in their incidence?
Mr. BUXTONI do not think that my attention has been called to cases in which contracts still existing for the supply of road metal were entered into before August, 1911, but I have communicated with the railway companies with regard to the special position of contracts made before notice was given of the recent increase of rates. The companies have pointed out that the question of increased rates has been prominently before traders for some time past, and that the contingency of an increase might therefore have been understood and provided for, as has indeed been done by many traders. They say further that the increases were 753W decided upon only after careful consideration in consequence of the increase in working expenses, and they regret that they cannot see their way to make an exemption in favour of traffics that may be subject to contract. I should add that amongst the matters which a railway company will have to prove in justifying an increase of rates under the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1913, is that the proportion of the general increase of rates and charges allocated to the particular traffic with respect to which the complaint is made is not unreasonable.