[Central Railway.]
A Contract for the carriage of cattle has been entered into.
Further information can be obtained at the Goods Manager’s Office,
Catharijne Kade 759, Utrecht.
The result is that a considerable portion of the traffic is carried under special agreements, under conditions such as the following, viz.:—
The sender agrees to forward between A and B special quantities, for instance:—
| 80 | tons | Soap, |
| 10 | ” | Sugar, |
| 5 | ” | Pepper, |
| 5 | ” | Tobacco, |
or to forward the whole of his traffic between C and D estimated at a specific quantity for a certain period, for instance:—
| 400 | tons | General goods, |
| 10,000 | ” | Coal, |
| 1,000 | ” | Coke. |
In Italy, differential rates have been the subject of public inquiry, and the representatives of some local interests have asked for their abolition. But they exist; and the verdict upon them of the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry in 1881 was: “It is indisputable that the system of differential rates has helped to strengthen and improve the national industries.”[26]
The fact of railways in other countries charging special rates for import, export and transit traffic, is, of course, not a proof of their being right in principle. But the foregoing information may correct loose assertions or suggestions that differential rates are unknown or rare elsewhere. It shows that the railway authorities and the Governments who control the rates in those countries, even while professing to charge mileage rates, have considered it necessary, with the view of promoting and protecting the interests of their trade, to charge differential rates.