Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/49



Mr. G. Garney. 3 August, 1831. of keeping the streets in repair, where horses alone travel; and I have seen the great wear and tear of stop iron shoes, when compared with the wheels of carriages.

Have you any plan to submit for fixing the Tolls on Steam Carriages?—The plan I should propose would be, if I may be allowed the term, that an iron horse of the same weight as one of flesh and bones should pay the same toll; and taking one horse to weigh 10 cwt., that for every 10 cwt, the Steam Carriage weighs, it should pay the same toll as one horse pays; although I do not admit that the same weight carried on four wheels will do as much mischief as on four, hoofs. If we take the Turnpike Acts, and look at the comparative rate of tolls charged when a horse is drawing and when he is not drawing. I shall be, I conceive, borne out in my position.

Can you point to any clause in Private Bills which press more than you conceive they should on Steam Carriages? There is one, the Liverpool and Prescot Road Bill, this Session, charging a toll per horse-power, which it is difficult to determine; my objection to that is, that if the horse-power is taken as the nominal Engine horse-power, a Steam Coach would have to pay 2l. 8s. where a stage coach pays only 4s. a toll. The next is the Bathgate, near Edinburgh road, where the tolls are on weight, and an Engine of three tons (about the usual weight of a loaded four-horse stage coach), would have to pay 1l. 7s. 1d., when four horses would have to pay 5s. The next is the Ashburn and Totness Road Bill, where 2l. would be charged on the Steam Carriage and the Carriage attached, being 5s. on each wheel; four horses, at the same time, would have to pay 3s. The next is the Teignmouth and Dawlish Roads; they are in the proportion of 2s. and 12s.

What is the most favourable instance to Steam Carriages?-The Metropolis Roads near London charge 1s, for four horses, and 2s. for the Steam Carriage and the one drawn; I complain of that because it limits me to a particular kind of Carriage; I am building one which will not weigh more than 5 cwt, and carry