Mr. Ritchie on Thursday introduced the Government Bill for Light
Railways. Its essential features are that a light railway may be proposed by any "local authority," or any railway or any company, and if sanctioned by a Light Railway Commission, which is to be created with three members, they may proceed to work at once, taking the necessary land by compulsion. The Commission will guard against " unreasonable " competition with existing railways, and will apply a sum of 21,000,000 to help in building the rail- ways in very poor districts. The scheme is a large and sensible one, and will, in the end, relieve agriculture materially; but Mr. Ritchie will find that he has work cut out for him. The pro- ject will require ten millions, not one, and the Board of Trade will, we suspect, find that unless they lend some money to the great railways at low rates, they will have to encounter a per- haps silent but deadly opposition.
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