Railway Assessments The complicated, prolonged and costly litigation over the
assessment for rates of the railway companies has at length been decided by the House of Lords judgement reducing the assessment of the Southern Railway from £2,180,000 to £1,077,181. The ruling gives the company a title to £1,800,000 paid in excess over the period'19817-36, and to a reduction of £300,000 in rates this year and in future years. Since the House of Lords' decision was on a question of principle which applies to all the railway companies, they have claims amounting in all to £15,000,000 in repayments and to £3,000,000 a year in reductions. As a consequence, £3,750,000 arrears, and an annual £750,000 (25 per cent. of the total) is due from . the local authorities, who, especially in County Durham, have protested their inability to pay ; 75 per cent., or £11,250,000, and an annual £2,250,000, is due from the Railway Freight Rebates Fund, and can only be realised by withholding rebates, that is, by increasing freight charges, to traders, especially the heavy industries, coal, iron, and steel. Equally the local authorities can only pay by raising rates. Thus it would seem that the railways' claims, which are rejoicing the hearts of railway stockholders and workers, can only be realised, short of Government intervention, at a severe cost to the rest of the com- munity.
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