The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-12-07 00:00:00

THE RAILWAY PASSENGER DUTY.

The Travelling Tax Abolition Committee have ad-
dressed a letter to Lord Sandon, the new President of
the Board of Trade, calliug on him to bring in a Bill
for the retification of Railway Passenger Duty. They
tell him that for 30 years the spirit of Cheap Trains
Act, which was passed for the protection of "the
poorer classes of travellers," was properly carried out
by the judicious interpretation of the Board of Trade,
who certified for the exemption from duty the penny a
mile fares of all trains which aided in carrying out the
object of the Act, which was that passsengers might
every day be able to travel from any one station to any
other station on the line aka penny per mile. The Court
of Exchequer has decided that no ersmption can be
claimed by any train that does not go from one end to
the other of a trunk, branch, or junction line, and stop
at every intermediate station to set down and take up
passengers at a penny per mile. The committee urge
that this decision, though it may be technically correct,
is contrary to the spirit of the Cheap Trains Act, and
actually punishes the railway companies for consulting
the convenience of that " poorer class of travellers "
whom the Act was passed to pretect ; as, for instance,
when a third-class carriage is deprived of the exemp-
tion because it is attached to an express train,
thus materially saving the time which is the money
of the poorer class of travellers. The committee
show that this decision, which though only partially
carried out, has yet increased the taxation on
penny a mile tares by 200,000
.a year, would be so
aggressive if it were strictly csrried out that the Board
of Inland Revenue, after having invoked it, have
actually refused to carry it out, for that they do now
grant the exemption to trains that neither go from
one end to the other of is line nor stop at every inter-
mediate station. They show also that this alleviation
of a great injustice is not based on any idea of propor-
tion between the passenger receipts of a railway and
its taxation, and looks therefore like favouritism to
certain lines. The committee call on Lord Sandon,
as President of the Board of Trade, to rectify the
passenger duty by ordering it to be collected in such
a manner as the Board of Inland Revenue will no
longer be ashamed to carry out. The committee
express their conviction that the only way of doing
this, short of abolishing the duty altogether, will be
to grant the exemption on all penny-a-mile fares, and
they call on his lordship to give to this proposal his
serious consideration. The Board of Trade have
stated, in reply, that the committee's letter has been
fully considered by them, and that, in view of the fact
that any legislation in the direction urged by the com-
mittee must affect the Exchequer, they have forwarded
a copy of the statement, together with the committee's
Gazettes of April and September last, to the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, in order that the same may be
laid before the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's
Treasury.

A SAGACIOUS PUPlL.—There was a parochial side-
school, in a remote muirland district of a southern
Scotch county, at which the attendance had, from
various causes, at one time dwindled down to a single
self-reliant boy; and one forenoon in a lull of school
work, the little fellow looked up with a reflective air,
and said—" Meister, a' think ther'll be nae schuling
the morn."—" What puts that in your head, sir ? '
haughtily inquired the master; to which the Callant
immediately replied, "A'il no be here "—interring
that Othello's occupation would that be gone.
42-1-m
t.
.. it illoWP