various districts for hauling such articles as corn, manure, lime, drainage pipes, timber, bricks, and other building materials; stone for the roads, boilers, and heavy pieces of machinery, and sometimes for lighter goods, such as flour and groceries from co-operative stores. They are thus of great benefit not only to the agriculturist, but also to the builder, the manufacturer, the distributor, and the consumer. They are largely used by some local authorities, and, to a considerable extent, by the War Department. They are especially useful in districts where the railway communication is not good, and for the carriage of bulky articles which cannot conveniently be transhipped or conveyed by rail. In such cases it is often not only cheaper but quicker and less injurious to the articles carried to convey them all the way by road rather than to and from the railway stations." Most of the traction engines escaped paying any license duty under the statutory exemption of engines used solely for agricultural purposes. They might be nuisances, but were scarcely a cause of appreciable danger. Horses were getting used to these steam carriages, and accidents seldom occurred. If properly lighted and attended to, there appeared to be little objection to these engines travelling by night on unlighted roads, judging from the experience of Kent and Aberdeen. Their use in crowded streets of large towns in the daytime seemed more objectionable, and they were accordingly prohibited in the middle of the day in London, Manchester, York, and other large towns; on the other hand, no such prohibition existed, nor was it apparently needed, in Leeds, Birmingham, Hull, Newcastle, and other important towns. The noise and vibration were naturally considered nuisances in residential towns, but serious damage was mainly limited to places where the houses were badly built, where the weights carried were excessive, and especially where, as in Aberdeen, the streets were paved with granite sets. The damage done to the metalled surface of ordinary roads was, however, considerable, while the owners were frequently not ratepayers within the county, and contributed little to the upkeep of the roads they used except the license duties. In spite of this, the engine-owners demanded that country, as well as town, roads should be maintained so efficiently as to bear the heaviest class of traffic likely to pass over them. That, of course, was most unreasonable, and the retention of "the extraordinary traffic clause" in the Act of 1878 (dealing with damage done to roads by extraordinary traffic or excessive weight) was strongly advised. Under the Act of 1878 the country authorities (and quarter-session boroughs, with a population of 10,000 and upwards, and the Common Council of the City of London) were empowered to make bye-laws regarding the hours of travelling, regulating the use of locomotives upon any highway, and preventing such use upon bridges which might be unsafe. Out of 150 different bodies in England and Wales, 60 or 70 had exercised these powers, and the variety and complexity of their bye-laws were more than the users of locomotives could patiently bear in one county a locomotive could not travel by night, entering another county it could not travel in the middle of the day. In regard to this, the committee very rightly observed :— -"Restrictions on locomotion are always in themselves objectionable, and can only be justified by necessity or grave inconvenience. We think, therefore, that on principle the prohibitions on engines travelling should be made as light and as uniform as possible." The making of closing bye-laws could not be placed in the hands of a central authority like the Local Government Board; local authorities could best appreciate the circumstances of each district, but they must use their power reasonably. The Committee, therefore, while recommending that local authorities should have no general powers of prohibiting the use of these engines within their county or county borough as a whole, considered that they should retain their present powers of making bye-laws to regulate their use upon any highway, and to prohibit their use in crowded streets or narrow roads or particular localities for special reasons. Then, in regard to license duties, the owner of an engine domiciled on the borders of several counties, or travelling long distances, might have to pay the maximum duty of £10, without rebate or allowance, in more than one county. Here, again, an Imperial license duty seemed to be the obvious remedy, but the division of the revenue among the various local authorities concerned would be difficult, and local registration would be useless, as local control would be rendered impossible. A statutory duty of £10 was advised, payable to the county, in which the engine was chiefly used, and the engine should have a right of passing through any other county on payment of a registration fee of 2s. 6d. Additional duty, at the rate of £2 per additional ton, should be paid for engines weighing over 10 tons. Steam-rollers should be exempted from license duties, as are agricultural engines. While expressing their opinion that the number of loaded trucks or wagons drawn by an engine should not exceed three (exclusive of a water-barrel), without the written consent of the surveyor, the Committee prepared to leave any restriction of the maximum length of the train to be prescribed by the local authorities in their bye-laws. The speed had hitherto been restricted to four miles an hour in the open country and to two miles an hour when passing through towns. The Committee would increase the latter to three. The desirability of unifying and consolidating the enactments relating to traction engines, and of re-enacting the law in a clear, consistent, and concise form was strongly urged at the conclusion of the Report; and the Committee appended the following summary of the recommendations: - I. That the limit of speed be maintained at four miles an hour in the country, but be raised from two to three miles an hour in towns and villages. II. That engines be authorised to be used with driving wheels of any form of construction that may be from time to time approved by the Local Government Board. III. (a) That in addition to the two men in charge of an engine in motion, a third man should be required to accompany it, not necessarily in advance or on foot, but in such a manner as to be best able to assist horses passing either from the front or from the rear. (b) That the fourth attendant be dispensed with in the case of trains consisting of three wagons or less. (c) That in the case of two plough engines with their necessary gear closely following each other, only five men should be required in attendance. (d) That one of the three attendants be required to remain with an engine while stationary on a highway, and having its fires alight. (e) That at night every engine or train of wagons should carry a conspicuous red light in the rear, and that all lights should be fitted with shutters or screens. IV.—(a) That a penalty not exceeding £10 be recoverable summarily for carrying weights on wagons in excess of those authorised by 24 & 25 Vict. cap. 70, s. 4, without the consent of the county or county borough surveyor. (b) That a similar penalty be recoverable for drawing without such consent a number of loaded wagons exceeding three exclusive of a water-barrel. V.-(a) That local authorities should have no general powers of prohibiting the use of engines for specified hours within their county or county borough as a whole. (b) That local authorities should retain their present powers of making bye-laws to regulate the use of engines upon any highway, and should also have power by bye-law (subject to confirmation by the Local Government Board) to prohibit their use in crowded streets, or narrow roads, or in special localities for special reasons: And that in confirming such bye-laws the Local Government Board should have all proper regard to the necessities of through traffic. VI. That in all cases where a bridge is closed against tractionengine traffic by order of a local authority, an appeal should lie to an arbitrator appointed by the Local Government Board. VII. (a) That a uniform annual license duty of £10 be paid by the owner (or user) of each engine of not more than ten tons in weight, exclusive of water and coals, with an addition of £2 per ton for every extra ton. (b) That a license may be transferred from one engine to (c) That the county or county borough council receiving the (e) That steam-rollers (as well as agricultural engines) be (f) That the expression "agricultural engine" should include any engine used solely for threshing, ploughing, or other agricultural purpose, and any engine the property of one or more occupiers or owners of agricultural land, employed solely for the purposes of their farms or estates, and not let out for hire. (g) That similar license duties be levied in Scotland and Ireland. VIII.—That the extraordinary traffic clause [41 & 42 Vict. cap. 77, s. 23] should be amended as follows: (a) The time for the recovery of expenses to be limited to a period of twelve months from the damage complained of, or (in case of a particular contract or building job) of six months from the termination of the work. (b) The expenses to be recoverable from any person by whose order or for whose benefit" the work is done. (c) The expenses not to be recovered before justices, but in the County Court, or, in case of large amounts, in the High Court. In Scotland an appeal should be allowed from the Sheriff's Court to the Court of Session, in order to secure uniformity in the decisions. The Clause should be extended to Ireland. IX. That the amount of the penalties for various offences should be revised, and that the law as amended should be consolidated in one Statute for the United Kingdom.* Traction engines already do a great deal of the kind of work that light railways propose to do; and their emancipation from the * The Locomotives Act, 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. c. 29), has since been passed. It is dated 2nd August 1898. |