It incorporates certain persons therein named, as "The Company of Proprietors of the River Swale and Bedale Brook Navigation." This company are empowered to raise, amongst themselves, or by the creation of new shares, or by mortgage of a moiety of the tolls and rates, the sum of £30,000; and they are authorized to take the following
TONNAGE RATES.
| For all Coal, Cinders, Lime and Lime-stone or other Stone, Slate, Gravel or Manure, from the Junction of the Swale and Ure to Bedale, or from Bedale to such Junction | 1s 10½d per Ton. |
| For all Butter, and all other Goods, Wares and Merchandize | 3s 9d ditto. |
And so in Proportion for a less Distance, or a greater or less Quantity.
The act limits the amount of dividend to be paid on the shares to £10 per cent. per annum, and when the receipts from the tolls exceed that sum, the highest rate of tolls to be reduced one-eighth.
Lords of manors and owners of land may erect wharfs and warehouses, and on their failing to do so, when required, the company have the power of erecting them, and they, as well as such owners, may take for every ton of goods, remaining not longer than ten days, sixpence; and for every subsequent day one half penny per ton.
Half a century back a lock 21 feet wide and 70 feet long was erected on this river at Naburn, four miles below York, at which a small toll of 1s. 2d. is taken on every vessel. Before the erection of this lock the tide flowed 4 feet at Ouse Bridge in York, being a distance of eighty miles from the sea.
The River Ouse, notwithstanding the limited trade of that portion above the city of York, has such an immense traffic in the lower part, by reason of the numerous rivers and canals immediately communicating with the manufacturing districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire, in addition to the coal mines, stone quarries, and various iron works situate in the West Riding, as will undoubtedly rank it the second river of the kingdom in importance and utility; whilst by its union with the estuary of the Humber, merchandize is exported to and imported from all parts of the world.
