Altogether it costs the Great Western Railway Company about £1 to earn each 10s. they receive from the canal; and whether or not, considering present day conditions of trade and transport, and the changes that have taken place therein, they would get their money back if they spent still more on the canal, is, to say the least of it, extremely problematical. One fact absolutely certain is that the canal is already capable of carrying a much greater amount of traffic than is actually forthcoming, and that the absence of such traffic is not due to any neglect of the waterway by its present owners. Indeed, I had the positive assurance of Mr Saunders that, in his capacity as Canals Engineer to the Great Western, he had never yet been refused by his Company any expenditure he had recommended as necessary for the efficient maintenance of the canals under his charge. "I believe," he added, "that any money required to be spent for this purpose would be readily granted. I already have power to do anything I consider advisable to keep the canals in proper order; and I say without hesitation that all the canals belonging to the Great Western Railway Company are well maintained, and in no way starved. The decline in the traffic is due to obvious causes which would still remain, no matter what improvements one might seek to carry out." The story told above may be supplemented by the following extract from the report of the Great Western Railway Company for the half-year ending December 1905, showing expenses and receipts in connection with the various canals controlled by that company:-- GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY CANALS, for half-year ending 31st December 1905. Canal. To Canal Expenses. By Canal Traffic. Bridgwater and Taunton £1,991 2 8 £664 8 9 Grand Western 197 7 1 119 10 10 Kennet and Avon 5,604 0 9 2,034 18 8 Monmouthshire 1,557 3 3 886 16 8 Stourbridge Extension 450 19 4 765 7 1 Stratford-upon-Avon 1,349 11 3 724 1 4 Swansea 1,643 15 7 1,386 14 9 -------------- -------------- £12,793 19 11 £6,581 18 1 -------------- -------------- The capital expenditure on these different canals, to the same date, was as follows:-- Brecon £61,217 19 0 Bridgwater and Taunton 73,989 12 4 Grand Western 30,629 8 7 Kennet and Avon 209,509 19 3 Stourbridge Extension 49,436 15 0 Stratford-on-Avon 172,538 9 7 Swansea 148,711 17 6 -------------- Total, £746,034 1 3 ---------------