It can hardly be necessary to point out that the Post Office has no more power than a railway company has to fix any particular rate, or to insist upon any principle of its own in regard to payment. The department can do no more than give expression to the views which it believes to be fair and just, leaving the final decision to the umpire. But that those decisions have allowed to railway companies the mere actual outlay, with little or no profit, is a misapprehension which a brief examination of some recent awards will suffice to remove. It fortunately happens that Mr. Stephenson furnishes in his address the data for checking his own accuracy on this particular point. He says that locomotive expenses on railways do not on an average exceed 9½d. per mile, and that the cost of running a train may be assumed in most cases to be about 15d. per mile. Compare this with some of the rates actually paid by the Post Office to different companies at various periods within the last few years, amounting, it will be seen, in one instance to the enormous price of 4s. 6d. per single mile. s. d. Chester to Birkenhead 2 0 per single mile. Dublin to Drogheda 2 0 ” Leeds to Selby 2 0 ” London to Bristol & Gloucester 2 0¼ ” Ipswich to Colchester 2 0½ ” Ely to Yarmouth 2 1 ” Peterboro’ to Grimsby 2 2 ” London to Dover 2 3 ” Londonderry to Strabane 2 4 ” Arbroath to Aberdeen 2 6 ” Lancaster to Carlisle 2 6 ” Southampton to Dorchester 2 8¼ ” Perth to Dundee 3 0 ” Dublin to Galway 3 0 ” York to Berwick 3 0 ” Dundee to Arbroath 3 1 ” Preston to Liverpool 3 1 ” Dundalk to Castleblayney 3 2 ” Parkside to Preston 3 6 ” Exeter to Plymouth 3 7 ” Grange Court (near Gloucester) to Haverfordwest 3 7 ” Drogheda to Dublin 3 9 ” Drogheda to Dundalk 4 0 ” Dublin to Cork 4 6 ” Limerick Junction to Limerick 4 6 ”