It is because inland navigation has been improved and kept up to date in these countries— whereas in our own case our waterways have stagnated in most and retrograded in many instances.
Sir John Brunner, Bart., M.P., writing to the Secretary of the Conference on Inland Navigation of 1895 gave it as his opinion that one could not study the figures relating to our waterways without coming to the conclusion that "the making of canals, the improvement of existing canals, the amalgamation of existing Canal Companies, and the acquisition by independent companies of canals now owned or controlled by Railway Companies, were of infinitely greater and more urgent importance to agriculturists and other traders than the making of light railways."
XII.—Economy of Water Transport.
The question now arises as to whether Canal is cheaper than Railway Transport in this country. The late Mr. E. K. Conder had no doubt as to the small cost with which traffic could be carried by the canal as compared with the railway. In a calculation which he submitted to the Select Committee on Canals,[1] he contended that the cost of railway traffic in the United Kingdom was not less than 0·53d per ton per mile, and this together with 0·78d. per ton per mile in respect of interest on invested capital, made a total of 1·31d. per ton per mile for both items, and a total cost of £587 per 100,000 units. In the case of
- ↑ "Select Committee on Canals," 1883, p. 83.
