“We recommend, as the best course under existing circumstances, that
a general Act of Parliament be passed to define all those points
which have given rise to difficulties between the Postmaster-General
and the railway companies; but we do not deem it expedient to enter
into the details of the arrangements to be embodied in the Act. We
merely point out that these services may be classed under two heads,
viz.,—first, services analagous to services rendered to the public;
secondly, services in trains to be run at special hours to be fixed by
the Postmaster-General.
“The first class, viz.: services by trains when railway companies fix
the time of starting and stopping, may be grouped under the following
heads, viz.,—first, mails in charge of railway companies without
Post Office guards; second, mails in charge of guards on Post Office
responsibility; third, compartments, or one or more carriages.
“For this class of services a tariff might be fixed by a general Act.
And if the Postmaster-General were to enter into communication with
the railway companies, we see no reason to doubt that an equitable
scale for these services would be agreed upon.
“For the second class of services, viz.: where the Postmaster-General
fixes the time of starting or stopping, or requires an exclusive or
limited train, the question of the proper remuneration for the service
performed should still be left to arbitration.
“We have no evidence that the provisions of the Act which we have
quoted in a former part of our report, allowing the Postmaster-General
to override an award which is otherwise binding on a railway company,
have ever been abused by him. We think such a power necessary for the
public interests, and have not, therefore, suggested any alteration of
the law in this respect.
“Another branch of traffic carried on in passenger trains, is the
conveyance of parcels. The railway companies complain that the
Post Office abstracts from them a large portion of this class of
traffic, by means of the parcel post. The Post Office contend that
the necessity for extending the parcel post has arisen from the
inefficient way in which the railway companies have performed the
parcel service; and the services which the Post Office under its Acts
of Parliament is entitled to perform, seem to be limited to printed
and written matter, and patterns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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