The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-02 00:00:00

RAILW AYS AND THE PUBLIC.

A paper on the question " How to make railways
remunerative to the shareholders, beneficial to the public,
and profitable to the State," has been read at the Society of
Arts by Mr. Raphael Brandon. 3 Tr. Webster, Q.C., occu-
pied the chair. Mr. Brandon's proposal is that Govern-
ment should avail itself of the power it possesses, and unite
the whole of the railways under one general management,
so that they should become a recognised branch of
the public service, available for the whole population
—a passenger being enabled to travel one journey of any
distance in one given direction at a sum little more than
nominal. lie supposes that the numbers at present tra-
velling would be increased six fold if they could travel one
journey of any distance in one direction for the sum of
areepeneo, which is the minimum sum he has based his
calculations upon. Existing fares under the proposed
minimum prices may remain as at present ; they are
comparatively few, and would not affect the calcu-
lations. lie finds that during the year ending 1865,
passenger trains to the number of 3,448,509 ran
over 71,206,818 miles, carried 251,959,862 passengers,
and produced £14,724,802 ; this gives au average of nearly
21 miles and 73 passengers for each train, that is about 34
passengers for each mile, the average fare paid by each pas-
senger being ls. 2d. Six times the number of passengers
could be carried for a very small (if any) additionalexpense,
and if a universal fare of 2d. was charged for any distance
for each person, at a very moderate computation six times
the present number would travel, and would produce
£18,896,989, being £4,172,187 in excess of the present
receipts. This calculation is made supposing that
each person pays only a 3d. fare ; but as it would be
necessary to divide the passengers into different classes, a
much larger receipt may be reckoned upon ; for this pur-
pose he would divide the traffic first in half, supposing
that half the passengers would travel by single fares, and
these he would sub-divide into three classes as follows: at
one shilling for first class, sixpence for second class, three-
pence for third class. The other half be considers would
take yearly tickets, which would be issued for first and
second class passengers at £25 and £l5 each respectively,
giving the holders the privilege of travelling any distance
in any direction, in carriages provided expressly for their
use, With respect to goods traffic, he has not thought
fit to enter into any calculations. Doubtless it would
increase, but he does not think it at all likely to increase
in the same proportion as the passenger traffic. For the
Government to take up the railways no money would be
needed; each shareholder would receive in return for his
shares Government railway stock, bearing interest at
4 2-stbs per cent., guaranteed by the State. The idea of
carrying a passenger from London to Edinburgh for 3d.
may be said to be preposterous, but we must remember
that it was not until Sir Rowland Hill had shewn
its feasibility that anyone thought it reasonable to
take a letter from London to Edinburgh for the same
charge as from London to Richmond. It may be said that
the analogy does not exist, that the half-ounce of a letter
is nothing, but that a passenger is really heavy, and makes
some difference in the cost of running a train. In reply,
he says that the delivery of a letter is the most expen-
sive part of its cost to the Post Office, whereas a pas-
senger takes himself away ; that the average of trains run
could each carry six times as many passengers as are now
conveyed by them, and though the expense might be
slightly increased, the increase could be but extremely
small, while the receipts would be enormously augmented.
The public would speedily reap the advantages of a com-
plete and harmonious system of management, with regular
and continuous trains running in all directions, and a
general diminution of expense ; trade would be benefited
enormously by the increased facilities of traffic, while the
effect upon the money market of at once converting
,£413,000,000 of sunk capital into readily convertible
securities would be a stimulus of enormous value to the
country.

NEW ACT ON PUBLIC DEPARTMENTS.—By an
Act of Parliament, which has received the Royal Assent,
fees and other casual receipts, which from ancient usage,
&c., have been
.received by persons holding public offices
under the Crown, are now to be paid into the Exchequer
to the credit of the Consolidated Fund.
Al deputation from the Royal Agricultural
Society, consisting of Lord Walsingham, Lord Bridport,
Lord Chesham, Colonel Kingscote, M.P., Mr. Torr, Dfr.
Randall, and Mr. Hall Dare (secretary), has waited
upon the Prince of Wales with the request that his Royal
e lli-hness would act as president of the society during the
ensuing year, to which the Prince consented. The Duke
of Richmond (president) was unavoidably prevented from
accompanying the deputation.
REDUCTION of W.toES IN TILE IRON TRADE.—
On Wednesaay the colliery proprietors Of South Stafford-
shire held a meeting at the Swan llotel, Wolverhampton,
to consider the course to be pursued now that the Iron-
masters' Association have resolved to reduce the price of
finished iron, and the rate of wages of the ironworkers.
The district embraced by the meeting is what is known as
the thin-coal, as distinguished from the thick-coal district
(chiefly in East Worcestershire), and that is mainly de-
pendent upon the iron trade. - On other occasions when a
rise or fall has taken place in iron and wages, there has
been a corresponding movement in the thin-coal business,
the change being a rise or fall, as the case may be, of 3d. a
day in the miners' wages. This practice has been observed
in the course which the meeting pursued, for it was re•
solved " That the wages of colliers and miners be reduced
day."