One inconvenience incidental to the course taken by the railway companies has been experienced. The actual classification in use does not follow the meagre, and in many respects arbitrary, statutory classifications; the latter may not be a guide to the former. This was one of the grievances laid before the Railway Rates Committee in 1881 and 1882. Traders, it was said, could only with difficulty ascertain the companies’ powers to charge for goods not enumerated in their Acts. The representatives of the railways agreed with some of the witnesses who gave evidence on behalf of the traders as to the original classifications in the Acts of the companies having become obsolete. They explained that from time to time they had been rectifying, in the manner already described, the defects of the statutory classification, and that, acting on information communicated by manufacturers and merchants, and guided by their own experience, they had framed and generally adopted the Railway Clearing House Classification, which embraces some 2,700 articles, and which is, on the whole, fairly adapted to the requirements of trade. They added that the companies were prepared to agree to a revised maximum classification in lieu of the original classification. Accordingly, the Committee recommended-- “That there should be adopted over the whole Railway system one uniform classification of goods.” “That terminal charges should be recognised, but be subject to publication, and, in case of challenge, to sanction by the Railway Commissioners.” The Board of Trade thereupon intimated to the railway companies their intention of introducing into Parliament a Bill with the view of carrying out some of the recommendations of the Committee, and requested them to prepare a standard maximum classification for general adoption.