predominance in both Houses of Parliament, have for more than half a century been able to stifle all opposition to their monopoly. It was they who, sixty years ago, secured the passage of an Act which fixed the road-tolls for a steam-waggon at a prohibitive figure, and another Act which compelled the employment of a pedestrian with a red flag to walk in front of any vehicle driven by a steam-engine. Thereby they closed road traffic to all except horsed vehicles. It was they who, by the disuse of their own canals, compelled the neglect of all other canals communicating with them, thereby diverting traffic to their own lines and causing an immense and unnecessary extension of permanent way and sidings and an inflated capital expenditure, representing much injury to many localities and a permanent burden on the nation.

(e) The expenses of railway traffic will in the future be increased by the enhanced price of fuel and labour. On the other hand, there are economies to be effected in the amalgamation of different companies leading up to the abolition of the clearing-house, the reduction in Boards of Directors, the separation of express traffic from goods traffic and thorough reorganisation of the latter, the reduction in clerical staff, the abolition of separate engine-building shops, the electrification of all suburban systems, etc.

(f) After half a century of monopoly the railways have now to meet the revived competition of the road. For short distances the petrol-driven vehicle is already an important competitor. It may be that this particular form of fuel is destined to a brief existence, if, as experts estimate, the visible supplies of petroleum provide for only thirty years' consumption; but there is reason to believe that gas, coke, alcohol, benzol or electric driven vehicles will play an important part in the future of locomotion even if mineral-oil deposits fail. In any case the roadways are and will remain the prime means of transport. They alone possess the advantage of carriage from door to door without unloading. They alone furnish the means of despatching goods at any hour without reference to time-table. They alone are immediately available for any new method of propulsion which may hereafter be invented. Whatever advantages the air

may possess in speed, it can never compete in weightcarrying with a road-motor.

(g) Our existing resources of locomotion and transport may shortly be supplemented by new methods. The mono-rail is one of many devices in the experimental stage. Even the wheel itself is not necessarily the last word in progression. New methods on land, at sea and in the air have to be reckoned with among our methods of transport.

These being our available resources, how are they best to be managed in the interest of the community? So far as the roadways are concerned, they are already dedicated to the public. The canals, in so far as they are in serviceable condition, are free for use, subject only to the payment of tolls. The railways, on the other hand, are private carriers, occupying exclusively their own lines of transport.

The treatment of the subject of canals during the last sixty years constitutes a blot on our reputation as a commercial nation. Three times has an agitation arisen calling for their revival. A Parliamentary Committee is appointed, takes voluminous evidence, arrives at the conclusion that the matter is one of great importance, and finally recommends that another body should be appointed with ample powers of deliberation. The Royal Commission of 1906, which sat for four years and published eight volumes of evidence and statistics, eventually recommended-not for action but for consideration—a scheme for the reconstruction of the four 'cross-ways' canals; but hardly was the last volume of the Report in the hands of the public when a Select Committee of the House of Commons (1918) threw cold water on the scheme and recommended minor methods of improvement. From all this it might be inferred that the matter is one of extreme difficulty, but that is not really the case; it is no more difficult than many questions that have been settled during the time this has been under discussion. The difference lies no doubt in this, that these were questions demanding speedy action, whereas the canals could be put aside for further consideration, and they have therefore been put aside.

The Select Committee of 1918 is undoubtedly right in

throwing cold water on the plan for continentalising our canal system at an expense of thirty or forty millions sterling. There is very little to be learned from French or German experience that is applicable to the condition of these islands, where there are no vast plains to be traversed and no large rivers to connect. The advocates of 100-ton or 300-ton barges rely entirely on continental experience. Putting that experience aside as inapplicable, there remains only the argument that the larger barges are more readily handled when the tidal portion of the journey is reached. Certain difficulties arise in dealing with a string of small barges in a rough tideway. That is true, but the answer is that, as a matter of fact, the difficulties are met and overcome; and it is certainly not worth while to embark on a large capital expenditure for the sake of avoiding them. So far as our own canal experience goes, trains of smaller barges are towed and managed more economically than separate barges of larger dimensions. On the Aire and Calder Canal thirty 40-ton barges are towed as a train and are managed by four men, whereas twenty-eight men are required for the same tonnage in separate barges. Substituting 25ton or 30-ton barges for those at present in use, the same result might be achieved on any of the 'cross' canals when they are put in good working condition.

There are indeed certain special economies incident to a large-section canal, such as the possibility of maintaining a higher speed; but essentially all the advantages of water-carriage over road- or rail-carriage can be attained on our present smaller waterways. The advantages are these:

(a) The vehicle weight is much less; the railway truck weighs as much as the load it carries; the barge carries five or six times its own weight.

(b) The cost of construction of rolling stock is at least five times the cost of barges to carry the same load.

(c) The power required to draw a certain weight on the canal is only one-fifth part of the power required to draw the same weight on the rail.

(d) As to maintenance of permanent way, the cost per mile exceeds four times the cost necessary for canal maintenance.

(e) Subsidiary economies, not to be exactly estimated Vol. 232.-No. 460.

H

but very real in their effects, are that canal traffic is carried on with the minimum of damage to goods, and that the capacity for extension of traffic is practically unlimited.

These are advantages which can all be realised on our existing canals without any radical reconstruction. On the Grand Junction route to the Humber all that is needed is the widening of the Watford locks, or the substitution of a lift with a few minor improvements, the total cost of which would probably not exceed 1,500,000l. What is needed here is not larger canals but regular traffic on the existing canals; and, if a capital expenditure of forty millions sterling is necessary to enable a 100-ton barge to traverse the system, it is quite clear that no private corporation would contemplate such an outlay for such a purpose.

The real remedy is to be sought elsewhere. When Stephenson laid down the Stockton and Darlington line, he had in his mind the idea that railway lines would be laid down throughout the country, and that private traders would use them. If the lines had remained in that condition, they would be in the state in which the canals now are. The railway companies found it necessary to become carriers and run their own trains. The canal companies must now run their own trains of barges according to a time table, and traffic will flow in to them as it did to the railways when they became regular carriers.

This necessarily presupposes the unification of canal management, but it by no means implies State ownership. There already exists in the Grand Junction Canal a body capable of forming the nucleus of an organisation which would gradually acquire the canals that are worth acquiring and working. Suppose the State were to lend to the company the amount necessary to repair their principal canals connecting Thames and Humber, to double the Watford locks, to erect requisite warehouses and equip the line for regular transport, on condition that the company should undertake to establish a regular daily service of trains of barges between Brentford and Goole, and upon the further condition that all excess profits of working should be devoted to the reduction of tolls. Two years' experience of the working would in all probability enable the company to formulate a plan

for acquiring and working other canals in like manner. There would be nothing in such a scheme to interfere with the private barge-owners, who under the name of 'bye-traders' or 'free-traders' are accustomed to use the canals. They would still be able to exercise their calling and they would profit by the change, for the provision of motor-power by the company would enable them to attach their barges to the train, at a cost less than the present expense of towage.

The form of traction is an engineering detail of great importance but need not be decided at once. As a speed of from 3 to 4 miles an hour cannot be exceeded with advantage on narrow canals, horse-traction is not to be lightly set aside; and, if coal is to cost in future two or three times its pre-war price, horses would doubtless be more economical than steam. The figures of actual results given by Mr Bartholomew from his experience on the Aire and Calder Canal put the cost of horsehaulage at one-fifth of a penny per ton-mile as against one-seventh of a penny per ton-mile for steam haulage. The latter figure would now of course be considerably higher. The full measure of economy obtainable from steam traction is not shown unless a long train of barges can be towed at a fair speed by one tug. Under favourable conditions, mineral traffic has been hauled on the Aire and Calder at th part of a penny per ton-mile. This cannot be attained on our existing canals, but it serves to show the importance of conducting traffic by trains instead of isolated barges. It is quite within the power of our canal engineers to design a form of long and narrow tug, with a central paddle wheel protected on both sides, towing a string of barges closely connected stem to stern. Such an arrangement would avoid all injurious waves and would permit an increase of speed on the narrowest canal, while it would utilise to the full the power of the steam or heavy oil engine.

But in the meantime considerable economy might be effected by the use of mules instead of horses. The mule is capable of performing two-thirds of the work of a horse while consuming only half the provender, and in all probability a team of mules towing a train of narrow barges would be found more economical than any other form of towage at present available.