1894: Canal Rates Enquiry; Wilts & Berks Canal - Local Witness

From the North Wilts Herald, 10th January 1894

The enquiry appointed by the Board of Trade to consider the rates, tolls, and charges submitted by the various canal companies in Great Britain was resumed yesterday morning at the Westminster Town Hall. Mr. T. H. Pelham, the Commissioner appointed by the Board of Trade, presided.

The schedules of the Lower Avon Navigation Company were first considered, the most striking piece of evidence being the statement of the company's manager that the Upper Avon Navigation Canal, which extends from Stratford-on-Avon to Evesham, had been closed since the construction of the Great Western Railway. The railway company, he said, purchased the canal, and had since allowed it to go into disrepair until it was now no longer navigable.

The Commissioner next took the schedule of the Wilts and Berks Canal, and Mr. W. J. Ainsworth, the manager of the company, gave evidence. He stated that the nominal capital of the company was £30,000, £15,000 of which was paid up. The total length of the canal was 69 miles, the largest town upon it being Swindon, which was about in the centre. The district through which it passed was in the main an agricultural one.

During the last year the tolls amounted to £575, and the income of the company was made up by rents from various properties. If they had only the tolls to rely upon for their income there would be a very heavy balance on the wrong side of the accounts each year. The income derived from the rents amounted to about £1,000 a year.  Working expenses amounted to about £1,700 a year. Up to 1888 they had paid a dividend of about 4 per cent, but no dividend has been declared since that date.

The total of A and B traffic under the present classification was about 8,298 tons, and the total of the sea traffic 3,874 tons. The total traffic Nos. 1 to 5 amounted to 8,820 tons, or a total tonnage of about 13,000 tons in round figures. Any increase of traffic must undoubtedly go to Swindon. The bulk of that traffic was foreign grain. Up to recently there had been a considerable quantity of coal from Somersetshire, but that had gone to Swindon and passed on. The maximum tolls were about double their actual tolls. What the company desired was to obtain under the new conditions a maximum equal to the present actual tolls and no more. Witnesses representing other companies were afterwards heard, and the enquiry was again adjourned.