£>.—2b

1888. NEW ZEALAND.

RAILWAY RATES, ETC., UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Laid upon the Table, with leave of the House, by Hon. Mr. Mitchelson.

Memorandum. The Government, having recently obtained a Eeport on American Railroads (U.S.), in which the scope and operation of the railroad laws in various States and of the Inter-State Commerce laws have'been briefly explained, has thought it desiratte to supplement this information by a reprint of the United States Inter-State Commerce Act and the first annual report of the Inter-State Commerce Commission. The restrictions which the United States Government have found necessary to impose on railroad companies in rate-making are of vital importance, involving principles which may be held to be of still greater cogency in the case of State-owned lines than they are in that of private ones. The paper has been reprinted from an English Parliamentary paper.

An Act to Eegulate Commerce.— [Public —No. 41.] Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of this Act shall apply to any common carrier or carriers engaged in the transportation of passengers or' property wholly by railroad, or partly by railroad and partly by water when both are used, under a common control, management, or arrangement, for a continuous carriage or shipment, from one State or Territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, to any other State or Territory of the Onited States, or the District of Columbia, or from any place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country, or from any place in the United States, through a foreign country,. to any other place in the United States and also to the transportation in like manner of property shipped from anyplace in the United States to a foreign country and carried from such place to a port of transhipment, or shipped from a foreign country to any place in the United States and carried to such place from a port of entry either in the United States or an adjacent foreign country : Provided, however, that the provisions of this Act shall not apply to the transportation of passengers or property, or to the receiving, delivering, storage, or handling of property, wholly within one State, and not shipped to or from a foreign country from or to any State or Territory as aforesaid. The term "railroad " as used in this Act shall include all bridges and ferries used or operated in connection with any railroad, and also all the road in use by any corporation operating a railroad, whether owned or operated under a contract, agreement, or lease ; and the term " transportation " shall include all instrumentalities of shipment or carriage. All charges made for any service rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passengers or property as aforesaid, or in connexion therewith, or for the receiving, delivering, storage, or handling of such property, shall be reasonable and just; and every unjust and unreasonable charge for such service is prohibited and declared to be unlawful. Sec. 2. That if any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act shall, directly or indirectly, by any special rate, rebate, drawback, or other device, charge, demand, collect, or receive from any person or persons a greater or less compensation for any service rendered, or to be rendered, in the transportation of passengers or property, subject to the provisions of this Act, than it charges demands, collects, or receives from any other person or persons for doing for him or them a like and contemporaneous service in the transportation of a like kind of traffic under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, such common carrier shall be deemed guilty of unjust discrimination, which is hereby prohibited and declared to be unlawful. Sec. 3. That it shall be unlawful for any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act to make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or any particular description of traffic, in any respect whatsoever, or to subject any particular person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or any particular description of traffic, to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever. I—D. 2b.