In connection with the Conference of the Associated Chambers of
Commerce opened at Manchester on Wednesday, interesting articles have appeared in Monday's Times and Wednesday's Daily Mail on the present position and possible development of our inland barge canals. We cannot even sum- marise all the statistics and facts presented, but may note that, excluding ship canals, there are now 3,856 miles of navigable inland water in the United Kingdom, 2,717 miles being con- trolled by eighty canal companies, and 1,139 by sixteen separate railway companies ; and that, as the result of Parlia- mentary action and inaction, the competition of railways, and the absence of uniform gauge, a great and valuable instrument for the promotion of cheap traffic is shorn of its efficiency. As the Times puts it, it can be confidently asserted that only very few, if any, of the English barge canals are now able to yield a reasonable dividend on the capital expended. The responsi- bility of Parliament is so clearly established that it is to Parliament alone that one can look for a remedy. The Times suggests, as the only course for the adequate development of this neglected national asset, that Parliament should purchase the whole of the canals—the gross capital expended was estimated at 223,000,000 in 1898—paying their fair value, and then improving the principal through routes to standard, the system to be administered by a special Canal Commission. That is a proposal which we believe would be for the good of the nation.
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