(3) An appeal shall not be brought except in conformity with such rules of court as may from time to time be made in relation to such appeals by the authority having power to make rules of court for the superior court of appeal.

(4) On the hearing of an appeal the court of appeal may draw all such inferences as are not inconsistent with the facts expressly found, and are necessary for determining the question of law, and shall have all such powers for that purpose as if the appeal were an appeal from a judgment of a superior court, and may make any order which the commissioners could have made, and also any such further or other order as may be just, and the costs of and incidental to an appeal shall be in the discretion of the court of appeal, but no commissioner shall be liable to any costs by reason or in respect of any appeal.1

1 See Mansion House Assoc. v. G. W. R. (1895), 9 R. & C. T. Ca. 58.

(5) The decision of the superior court of appeal shall be final: provided that where there has been a difference of opinion between any two of such superior courts of appeal, any superior court of appeal in which a matter affected by such difference of opinion is pending may give leave to appeal to the House of Lords, on such terms as to costs as such court shall determine. (6) Save as provided by this Act, an order or proceeding of the commissioners shall not be questioned or reviewed, and shall not be restrained or removed by prohibition, injunction, certiorari, or otherwise, either at the instance of the Crown or otherwise.

1888.

SUPPLEMENTAL.

XVIII. General powers and enforcement of orders.-(1) For the purposes of this Act the commissioners shall have full jurisdiction to hear and determine all matters whether of law or of fact, and shall as respects the attendance and examination of witnesses, the production and inspection of documents, the enforcement of their orders, the entry on and inspection of property, and other matters necessary or proper for the due exercise of their jurisdiction under this Act, or otherwise for carrying this Act into effect, have all such powers, rights, and privileges as are vested in a superior court: provided that no person shall be punished for contempt of court, except with the consent of an ex officio commissioner.

(2) The commissioners may review and rescind or vary any order made by them; but, save as is by this Act provided, every decision or order of the commissioners shall be final.1

1 As to procedure before the Commission, see Law of Rlys. pp. 622-624.

XIX. Costs. The costs of and incidental to every proceeding before the commissioners shall be in the discretion of the commissioners, who may order by whom and to whom the same are to be paid, and by whom the same are to be taxed and allowed.1

1 See Law of Rlys. p. 622.

XX. Power to make rules.—(1) The commissioners may from time to time, with the approval of the Lord Chancellor and the President of the Board of Trade, make, rescind, and vary general rules for their procedure and practice. under this Act, and generally for carrying into effect this part of this Act.1

1 As to procedure in Scotland, see Ferguson's Five Years Railway Cases (1889-93), H.R. v. G.N.S. R. p. 6; and in Scottish cases prior to Act of 1888, Macfarlane v. N.B.R. (1883), 4 R. & C. T. Ca. 206; Menzies v. C.R. (1887), 5 R. & C. T. Ca. 306.

51 & 52 VICT. Cap. 25.

(2) All rules made under this section shall be laid before Parliament within three weeks after they are made if Parliament is then sitting, and if Parliament is not then sitting within three weeks after the beginning of the then next session of Parliament, and shall be judicially noticed, and shall have effect as if they were enacted by this Act.

XXI. Appointment of officers, clerks, etc.-(1) There shall be attached to the Railway and Canal Commission such officers, clerks, and messengers as the Lord Chancellor, with the consent of the Treasury as to number, from time to time appoints.

(2) There shall be paid to each of such officers, clerks, and messengers, such salaries as the Treasury from time to time determine.

XXII. Salaries, expenses, etc.—The salaries of the appointed Commissioners, and of all officers, clerks, and messengers attached to the Railway and Canal Commission, and all the expenses of the said Commission of and incidental to the carrying out of this Act, shall be paid out of moneys to be provided by Parliament.

XXIII. Company to which Part I. applies.-This part of this Act shall apply to any railway company, and to any canal company, and to any railway and canal company.

PART II.-TRAFFIC.

XXIV. Revised classification of traffic and schedule of rates.—(1) Notwithstanding any provision in any general or special Act, every railway company shall submit to the Board of Trade a revised classification of merchandise traffic, and a revised schedule of maximum rates and charges applicable thereto, proposed to be charged by such railway company, and shall fully state in such classification and schedule the nature and amounts of all terminal charges proposed to be authorised in respect of each class of traffic, and the circumstances under which such terminal charges are proposed to be made. In the determination of the terminal charges of any railway company regard shall be had only to the expenditure reasonably necessary to provide the accommodation in respect of which such charges are made, irrespective of the outlay which may have been actually incurred by the railway company in providing that accommodation.

(2) The classification and schedule shall be submitted within six months from the passing of this Act, or such further time as the Board of Trade may, in any particular case, permit, and shall be published in such manner as the Board of Trade may direct.

(3) The Board of Trade shall consider the classification and schedule, and any objections thereto, which may be lodged with them on or before the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner, and shall communicate with the railway company and the persons (if any) who have lodged objections, for purpose of arranging the differences which may have arisen.

the

(4) If, after hearing all parties whom the Board of Trade consider to be entitled to be heard before them respecting the classification and schedule, the Board of Trade come to an agreement with the railway company as to the classification and schedule, they shall embody the agreed classification and schedule in a Provisional Order, and shall make a report thereon, to be submitted to Parliament, containing such observations as they think fit in relation to the agreed classification and schedule.

(5) When any agreed classification and schedule have been embodied in a Provisional Order, the Board of Trade, as soon as they conveniently can after the making of the Provisional Order (of which the railway company shall be

deemed to be the promoters), shall procure a Bill to be introduced into either House of Parliament for an Act to confirm the Provisional Order, which shall be set out at length in the schedule to the Bill.

(6) In any case in which a railway company fails within the time mentioned in this section to submit a classification and schedule to the Board of Trade, and also in every case in which a railway company has submitted to the Board of Trade a classification and schedule, and after hearing all parties whom the Board of Trade consider to be entitled to be heard before them, the Board of Trade are unable to come to an agreement with the railway company as to the railway company's classification and schedule, the Board of Trade shall determine the classification of traffic which, in the opinion of the Board of Trade, ought to be adopted by the railway company, and the schedule of maximum rates and charges, including all terminal charges proposed to be authorised applicable to such classification which would, in the opinion of the Board of Trade, be just and reasonable, and shall make a report, to be submitted to Parliament, containing such observations as they may think fit in relation to the said classification and schedule, and calling attention to the points therein on which differences which have arisen have not been arranged.

(7) After the commencement of the session of Parliament next after that in which the said report of the Board of Trade has been submitted to Parliament, the railway company may apply to the Board of Trade to submit to Parliament the question of the classification and schedule which ought to be adopted by the railway company, and the Board of Trade shall on such application, and in any case may, embody in a Provisional Order such classification and schedule as in the opinion of the Board of Trade ought to be adopted by the railway company, and procure a Bill to be introduced into either House of Parliament for an Act to confirm the Provisional Order, which shall be set out at length in the schedule to the Bill.1

1 See amending Act, 55 & 56 Vict. c. 44.

(8) If, while any Bill to confirm a Provisional Order made by the Board of Trade under this section is pending in either House of Parliament, a petition is presented against the Bill or any classification and schedule comprised therein, the Bill, so far as it relates to the matter petitioned against, shall be referred to a Select Committee, or if the two Houses of Parliament think fit so to order, to a joint Committee of such Houses, and the petitioner shall be allowed to appear and oppose as in the case of a private Bill.1

1 As to opposition by County Councils, etc, see amending Act, 54 Vict. c. 12. (9) In preparing, revising, and settling the classifications and schedules of rates and charges, the Board of Trade may consult and employ such skilled persons as they may deem necessary or desirable; and they may pay to such persons such remuneration as they may think fit and as the Treasury may

approve.

(10) The Act of Parliament confirming any Provisional Order made under this section shall be a public general Act, and the rates and charges mentioned in a Provisional Order as confirmed by such Act shall, from and after the Act coming into operation, be the rates and charges which the railway company shall be entitled to charge and make.

(11) At any time after the confirmation of any Provisional Order under this section any railway company may, and any person, upon giving not less than twenty-one days' notice to the railway company, may apply in the prescribed manner to the Board of Trade to amend any classification and schedule by adding thereto any articles, matters, or things, and the Board of Trade may hear and determine such application, and classify and deal with

1888.

51 & 52 VICT. Cap. 25.

the articles, matters, or things referred to therein in such manner as the Board of Trade shall think right. Every determination of the Board of Trade under this sub-section shall forthwith be published in the London Gazette, and shall take effect as from the date of the publication thereof.

(12) Nothing in this section shall apply to any remuneration payable by the Postmaster-General to any railway company for the conveyance of mails, letter-bags, or parcels under any general or special Act relating to the conveyance of mails, or under The Post Office (Parcels) Act, 1882.

(13) Nothing in this section shall apply to any remuneration payable by the Secretary of State for War to any railway company for the conveyance of War Office stores under the powers conferred by The Cheap Trains Act, 1883. XXV. Provisions as to through traffic.-Whereas by section two of The Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1854, it is enacted that every railway company and canal company, and railway and canal company, shall, according to their respective powers, afford all reasonable facilities for the receiving and forwarding and delivering of traffic upon and from the several railways and canals belonging to or worked by such companies respectively, and for the return of carriages, trucks, boats, and other vehicles; and that no such company shall make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to or in favour of any particular person or company, or any particular description of traffic, in any respect whatsoever, or shall subject any particular person or company, or any particular description of traffic, to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever; and that every railway company and canal company and railway and canal company having or working railways or canals which form part of a continuous line of railway, or canal or railway and canal communication, or which have the terminus station or wharf of the one near the terminus station or wharf of the other, shall afford all due and reasonable facilities for receiving and forwarding by one of such railways or canals all the traffic arriving by the other, without any unreasonable delay, and without any such preference or advantage or prejudice or disadvantage as aforesaid, and so that no obstruction may be offered to the public desirous of using such railways or canals or railways and canals as a continuous line of communication, and so that all reasonable accommodation may by means of the railways and canals of the several companies be at all times afforded to the public in that behalf:

And whereas it is expedient to explain and amend the said enactment :
Be it therefore enacted, that 1—

Subject as hereinafter mentioned, the said facilities to be so afforded are
hereby declared to and shall include the due and reasonable receiving,
forwarding, and delivering by every railway company and canal company
and railway and canal company, at the request of any other such company,
of through traffic to and from the railway or canal of any other such
company at through rates, tolls, or fares (in this Act referred to as through
rates); and also the due and reasonable receiving, forwarding, and
delivering by every railway company and canal company and railway
and canal company, at the request of any person interested in through
traffic, of such traffic at through rates: provided that no application
shall be made to the commissioners by such person until he has made a
complaint to the Board of Trade under the provisions of this Act as to
complaints to the Board of Trade of unreasonable charges, and the
Board of Trade have heard the complaint in the manner herein
provided.

1 The passages in italics are repeated from the Act of 1873.

(1) The company or person requiring the traffic to be forwarded shall give
written notice of the proposed through rate to each forwarding company,
stating both its amount and the route by which the traffic is proposed to
be forwarded; and when a company gives such notice it shall also state
the apportionment of the through rate. The proposed through rate
may be per truck or per ton:

(2) Each forwarding company shall, within ten days, or such longer period
as the commissioners may from time to time by general order prescribe,
after the receipt of such notice, by written notice inform the company or
persons requiring the traffic to be forwarded, whether they agree to the
rate and route; and if they object to either, the grounds of the objection :
(3) If at the expiration of the prescribed period no such objection has been
sent by any forwarding company, the rate shall come into operation at
such expiration:

(4) If an objection to the rate or route has been sent within the prescribed

period, the matter shall be referred to the commissioners for their decision: (5) If an objection be made to the granting of the rate or to the route, the commissioners shall consider whether the granting of a rate is a due and reasonable facility in the interest of the public, and whether, having regard to the circumstances, the route proposed is a reasonable route, and shall allow or refuse the rate accordingly, or fix such other rate as may seem to the commissioners just and reasonable:

(6) Where, upon the application of a person requiring traffic to be forwarded, a through rate is agreed to by the forwarding companies, or is made by order of the commissioners, the apportionment of such through rate, if not agreed upon between the forwarding companies, shall be determined by the commissioners:

(7) If the objection be only to the apportionment of the rate, the rate shall
come into operation at the expiration of the prescribed period, but the
decision of the commissioners, as to its apportionment, shall be retro-
spective; in any other case the operation of the rate shall be suspended
until the decision is given:

(8) The commissioners, in apportioning the through rate, shall take into
consideration all the circumstances of the case, including any special
expense incurred in respect of the construction, maintenance, or working of
the route, or any part of the route, as well as any special charges which
any company may have been entitled to make in respect thereof:
(9) It shall not be lawful for the commissioners in any case to compel any
company to accept lower mileage rates than the mileage rates which such
company may for the time being legally be charging for like traffic carried
by a like mode of transit on any other line of communication between the
same points, being the points of departure and arrival of the through

route.

Where a railway company or canal company use, maintain, or work, or are party to an arrangement for using, maintaining, or working steam vessels for the purpose of carrying on a communication between any towns or ports, the provisions of this section shall extend to such steam vessels, and to the traffic carried thereby.

When any company, upon written notice being given as aforesaid, refuses or neglects without reason to agree to the proposed through rates, or to the route, or to the apportionment, the commissioners, if an order is made by

1888.