| 0·21| ... | 0·18|The rates for and Coal Fish; }| | | | | | | classes 1, Eels, Flounders,}| | | | | | | 2, 3, and Sprats in any }| | | | | | | 4 include state }| | | | | | | collection | | | | | | | and delivery Class 3a.--Ditto | 0·43| ... | 0·21| ... | 0·18| | The rates | | | | | | | for classes Class 4.--Salmon }| | | | | | | 3a, 4a, and (in boxes) and }| | | | | | | 5, are S. Soles, Oysters, }| | | | | | | to S. Lobsters, and }| ... | 0·40| ... | 0·29| ... | 0·25| Shellfish, not }| | | | | | | otherwise }| | | | | | | classified }| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Class 4a.--Ditto | 0·54| ... | 0·29| ... | 0·25| ... | | | | | | | | Class 5.--Fresh }| | | | | | | Fish of all }| | | | | | | descriptions, }| 0·70| ... | 0·29| ... | 0·25| ... | not otherwise }| | | | | | | classified }| | | | | | | -------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------------- We now touch a question which comprehends most of those already discussed. When it is stated, as it often is, that the rates charged by the railway companies in this country are generally too high, what exactly is meant? Is it contended that shareholders should be content with smaller dividends than they receive? Let us note the facts. The average dividend in the year 1884 was only 4¼ per cent.; in 1844 it was considered by the Legislature that, at least, 10 per cent. should be earned by the shareholders. In the United Kingdom the average rate of dividend paid during the last 14 years on the capital expended on the construction of railways--which, as already shown, was, at the end of 1884, £801,464,367, and in England and Wales £665,055,379--was only 4·38 per cent. For the year 1884, out of a total of £298,980,000 of ordinary capital, £48,000,000 paid no dividend at all. As an illustration of the moderate return on the shareholders’ capital, it may be mentioned that the Great Western Railway Company, which owns, or jointly owns, 2,496 miles of railway, has during the last 30 years only paid an average dividend of £3 15s. per cent. per annum. The meaning of the statement cannot be that, as compared with the dividends of other industrial companies, those of railways are too high. The facts are all the other way.