Page:The Canal System of England.djvu/61

 railway engine would do in an hour, what would occupy a day on a canal. This may be quite true without the speed of delivery being greater, for railways as a whole cater in the first place for passengers, and goods are shunted, delayed, and given a secondary place to the passenger traffic.

Canals have no such causes for delay, and thus we find that Mr. F. Morton, representing the firm of Messrs. Fellows, Morton & Co., Railway and Canal Carriers, before the same committee, declared that in conveying limestone from the Froghall Quarries, and ironstone from North Staffordshire to the Blast Furnaces in South Staffordshire, railway wagons and canal boats averaged about the same time, viz.: from seven to eight days.

Of course on such a railway as the Taff Vale, which caters primarily for carriage of mineral goods, and secondarily for passengers, the transit of goods is very expeditious, but this case is the exception and not the rule, and the rate of transit on Railways and Canals alike, rests very much with the administration of the owners; and the administration of the canals of England is very largely responsible for the comparatively small amount of traffic on our waterways.

As matters stand at present, a trader who wishes to make use of a through canal route in England has generally to negotiate with a number of small companies, every one