result of this continual effort to adapt charges to new conditions, answers reasonably, if not perfectly, the requirements of trade.[37] [36] “What is complained of by the traders is not so much the high scale of the rates as their inconsistency and want of classification, as well as the want of facilities given by the railway companies for the development of the trade in a particular locality. That before the Royal Commission on Depression of Trade, not a single witness, except in the shipping interest, was examined in reference to railway rates who did not complain of some act of injustice on the part of the railway companies, not so much in regard to the rates, although they were onerous and prohibitory in some cases, as to the inconsistency of such rates.”--_Mr. L. Cohen, House of Commons Debate, 6th May, 1886. Hansard, vol._ cccv., _pages 428-9_. [37] NOTE.--The New Zealand correspondent of the “_Economist_” (Oct. 23, 1886), writes from Wellington as follows: “The fact of the railways being in the hands of Government is by no means an unmixed good. A uniform system of rates is demanded everywhere. If a concession is made to one district, the rest of the colony naturally demand to be placed on the same footing, so that the Railway Department rarely meet the wishes of the public. _A private Company, if it found that the freight could be got by lowering the tariff on some particular item, would do so at once, and if it paid, continue it._ The cost probably would be merely a few tons of coals, and a small amount for wear and tear. _Many trades, notably the timber trade, are very much hampered by the Government tariff which does not admit of differential rates._” This is a sample of the inconveniences attending uniformity. It must be borne in mind, in framing a new standard classification, that it will be the maximum beyond which the companies must not go. If adopted generally over all railways, the scales of maximum rates must allow scope for the local necessities and peculiarities of different districts of the country. Inverness-shire and Cornwall, as well as Staffordshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, agricultural, manufacturing, and mining districts, must all be considered. There must be sufficient elasticity in the scale of maximum rates to allow of the charges being remunerative on short distance traffic. Goods coming under the same generic name often vary considerably in cubical contents in proportion to weight, value, and risk of damage, as well as in the extent to which they are carried; all considerations not to be forgotten in constructing a uniform classification. The following few examples, taken casually from consignments actually carried, illustrate the remarkable variations in the weights and bulk of some of the traffic:-- Cubic feet to the ton.