FARMERS, RAIL RATES, AND FOREIGN FOOD [To the Editor of
.the Sescrivron.] Sin,—We are invited to believe that one reason why our agriculture declines whilst we eat more and more foreign food is- that the rail rates from farms . to markets in this country are excessive. Could anything be more ridiculous ? Foreign food sold here has to be specially packed because of the long journeys and frequent handlings ; it has to carry a foreign rail rate from farm to port, foreign port charges and agent's commission, ship freight across the sea, British port charges and agent's commission, and a British rail rate from port to inland. "city, ,plus market costs and retailer's profit. British food has to stand nothing more in the transport cost line than the rate for a single and short journey from farm to city.
The British &Mier, like the British coalowner and British _rt .
manufacturer, his the lowest transport costs in the corn.
petitive world, for our haulage distances, are extremely short. Our chief pomts of consumption are very near to the points of production. In most foreign countries the haulage dis- tances are far_ longer, and for all foreign produce consumed in our country they are immense—a long foreign rail trip, a sea trip, and a,_British rail trip. The assertion that British railways carry foreign _produce at low preferential, rates is untrue, The law, prohibits it, and the railway companies have no desire to do it. If the British farmer pays high, rail rates, it is because_ he fails to bulk his consignments.7,-
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