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has arrived when milway companies should combina to doviso som0
rapid and efficient system for the delivery of parcels. W e do not feel
called upon to suggest thc precise manrler in which this may bo carried
into effect ; but the emplopent of a uniform system of adhesive labels
for parcels, somewhat similar to that now in upe on some of tho northern
lines for the conveyance of I1c‘wspnpcrs, is one of the moat obvious
methods for facilitating payrneut and accounting.
(‘If the railway companics do not combinc roluntnrilp it mny bo
nccessary at some future time for Pnrlinmcnt to interfere to mnkc the
obligation to carry pnrcels compulsory, at a rate to bc prescribed by law.”
Sir Rowland Dill, mho was a inember of this commission,
prepared a separate Report, in which he advocatcd tho carlying
out of his original idea, saying (p. csvii.) :
‘‘ It appcars higl~ly clcsirablc t,h:lt, RP fast ns railways become national
propcrty, provision should bc xnadc in the lenses for giviugcflect to thosc
views ; and iu tllc meanlixnc, fully bclicving that the plan would prow
bcncficial to railway intcrcsts as well as to tho l~ublic, it is llopctl that
nrrangcmellts for thc purposc may be macle (as suggested bg 311.. >!tlwnrd
Page) for attaining thc Eamc c11d with the concurrmcc of existing
companies.” *
It would be hardly possible to over-estimate the atlvnntngcs
which would be derived by tllc community fro111 an nli-extensive,
well organised, and moderatcly dwap parcel post.
People may say that it is already possiLIo to send a humper or
parcel from any one place to any other place in tho kingdom
for charges which, all things considered, nre not very heavy.
But this is not enough; the cost, after all, is only oue eloment
of the question in cases of this kind. Trouble, worry, uncertainty,
risk, are influences which almaya affect traffic in IL
* The only response, so far as 1 am aware, which has been made by
the railway companies to tho kind advice and Yomewhat feeble ovcrtures
of the Commissioners, has been a reccnt general increasc on tho already
opprcssire railway rates for parcels. In November, 1867, the imposition
of this arbitrary tax created somc indignation among tradesmen who
were most likely to feel its irnmediatc effects, and the Birmingham
Chamber of Commerce convened a kind of representative indignation
meeting. But I am not aware that their expostulations have had any
effect, and I fear that even the Four Hundred, with Mr. Chamberlsin,
at their head, cannot shake a board of directors, with the Acts of Parliament
in their favour. Thus, while the railway companies never cease
to sseeil us with protests against the railway passenger dnty, which at