The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-03 00:00:00

Abolition of Tolls in England.

The Epiphany sessions for the county of Warwick
were opened on Tuesdayat the Shire-hall Warwick.
Mr. W. Dickins, chairman, presided ; and among

the magistrates present were—M.r. T. C. S. Kyn

nersley (deputy chairman), Lord Leigh, Viscount
Duncan, Sir G. Chetwynd, Mr. Newdegate, M.P.,
Mr. H. C. Wise, M.P., Mr. W. Martin, M.P., the

Roy. H. Mills, &c. The Chairman introduced the

subject of the abolition of tolls by reading a memo-
rial adopted by the Gloucestershire magistrates at
their quarter sessions at Michaelmas, praying for the

abolition of the turnpike tolls.
The CHAIRMAN explained the past legislation on
the subject of turnpike trusts. There wos a time—
before railways came into operation—when travel-
lers made long journeys by road, but now these long
journeys were unnecessary and were never taken.

The consequence was that the turnpike roads were

all supported by persons living in the district, and
what he wanted was that they should send a memo-

rial, similar to that sent by the Gloucestershire ma-
gistrates, asking them to extinguish the tolls alto-
gether, and suggest a scheme to provide for the
maintenanceof turnpike roads. The question for this
oourt was whether they were disposed to co-operate
in urging upon Government to adops that step which
the Gloucestershire magistrates had already asked
them to adopt. The memorial he would submit was
as follow:—" We, the justices of the county of War-
wick, in quarter sessions assembled, beg to call the
attention of the Government to the present state of

turnpike trusts in England. Many trusts have, of
late years, by successive acts of Parliament, been
extinguished, and the remainder are for the most
part continued only from year to year by a sessional
act passed for the purpose. In this unsettled state
of turnpike trusts, and looking to the change of
traffic by the establishment of railways, we would
respectfully urge upon the Government the expedi-
ency of submitting to Parliament some comprehen-
sive scheme whereby turnpike tolls may altogether
be abolished and the maintenance of roads provided
for by such an equalisation of the expenditure as
may protect individual parishes from any undue
burden being thrown unpon them."
Lord LEIGH, in seconding the motion, said he
believed they could not take a wiser step than fol-
low what had been done in Gloucestershire, leaving
Government to deal with the whole question.

Mr. NEWDEGATE, M.P., said that Parliament had
previously had its attention called to the subject,
and he had attended several deputations to the Home
Office with res!ect to the conditions under which
the trusts which were about to be extinguished should
close their accounts. He went when the late Go-
vernment was in office, and afterwards an under-
standing was given by the Home Secretary that
where a trust was to be wound up which was in a
solvent state, the trustees should have the power
of compensating their officers who had served them
more than 15 years, particularly in the case of sur-
veyors. After the resignation of the late Govern-
ment the question was necessarily renewed. On his
motion, a clause to that effect was inserted in a bill
bill before Parliament, and which was in fact a bill
to terminate a great number of trnsts, but the bill
was late in reaching the House of Lords, and the
clause was consequently rejected. It would
be unjust were not that clause inserted in any future
bill, and he said that with some knowledge, being one
of the commissioners for the metropolitan trusts,
and when they decided to abolish a trust, provisihn
was made for the old servants who had been in the
service fifteen, twenty, thirty, or forty years The
commissioners felt they would not be acting properly
by turning those men adrift, especially where there
was a surplus remaining in the hands of the trust,
which was a proof of their success. The subject alto-
gether was a most important one. He thought that
Parliament was verging towards the point when it
would bring the present system to a close. But he
was rejoiced that the Court had thought fit to call
the attention of Parliament to the great injustice
that might be done by the mere extinction of the
of the present organisation.
Mr. BOLTON KING supported the proposal. He
thought those gentlemen who were in favour of
turnpikes did not quite consider the whole case. Many
people fancied that the money paid at the toll-gates
went towards the repair of the road, and so they put
up with the inconveniences of the toll-gate, in that
belief. But they would find that the large propor-
tion did not go to the repair of the roads. In Wor-
cestershire the salaries, law expenses, &c., swallowed
up nearly one-half of the sum taken at the gates.
Mr. T. COLMORE, while supporting the motion,
said it would be iniquitous that the repairs of the
turnpike roads should be thrown on the several pa-
rishes, whose rates would be thereby doubled.
The Rev. H. MILLS admitted that there were cer-
tain objections to paying tolls, but of all the known
systems of repairing roads in use, the turnpike
system, with all its faults, was the grand desideratum
for maintaining the roads.
Mr. P. WYKEHA3I MARTIN, M.P., said he was a
member of that committee in the House of Commons,
to which was referred the insolvent trust; and the
general course adopted was to reduce the rate of in-
terest on liabilities, and prolong the trust for a period
of 30 years. Ho thought that the Court, in asking
Government to deal with the question, ought to
give them some clue as to whether they were pre-
pared to buy up that 30 years' interest.
Mr. Newdegate observed that if parliament de-
cided that turnpike tolls should be abolished, then
it should make provision for the discharge of sach
debts as were in good faith due to the public. For
his own part, he would not like, as the representa-
tive of North Warwickshire, to pledge himself to
any system of abolition until he knew what tha sub-
stitute was. He thought it would be more prudent
to contemplate the abolition of tolls as a probable
thing to be done by parliament, and to suggest to
Government and Parliament that if they intended to
proceed in that course they must propose some
sy stem to provide for the revenue which they will
destroy, and substitute some Government arrange-
ment in liu of that which would be abolished.
Mr. ADAMS thought the answer of Parliament
would be that the revenue which was before derived
from the tolls would now have to be paid out of the
highway rates ; and if that was to be the answer,
he thought a good many gentlemen who had sup-
ported the memorial would regret.
The CHAIRMAN observed that one of the objects
of the memorial was to prevent the adoption of the
Highway Act. They wanted to make it a general
charge.
Atter some furthe.t conversation the memorial was
adopted by a majority.

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