Annual Report of the Interstate Commerce Commission

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CANADIAN LEGISLATION.

An act respecting railways, to be known as "the railway act," was adopted by the senate and house of commons of Canada during the present year, which became a law on May 22, 1888.

A Royal commission of five members had previously examined the general subject, and filed a report under date of January 14, 1888.

The new railway act comprises 309 sections, covering the entire ground of railway legislation, including organization, capital stock, powers, right of way, tolls, working of the railway, accidents, statistics, etc.

The following sections are those which relate to subjects corresponding in their nature to the matters of regulation embraced in the act to regulate commerce of the United States.

THE RAILWAY COMMITTEE,

8. The railway committee of the privy council shall consist of the minister of railways and canals, who shall be chairman thereof, of the minister of justice and of two or more of the other members of the Queen's privy council for Canada to be from time to time appointed by the governor in council, three of whom shall form a quorum; and such committee shall have the powers and perform the duties assigned to it by this act.

9. The deputy of the minister of railways and canals, or some other fit person appointed by the committee, shall be secretary of the committee.

10. The railway committee may

(a) Regulate and limit the rate of speed at which railway trains and locomotives may be run in any city, town, or village, or in any class of cities, towns, or villages described in any regulation; limiting, if the said railway committee think fit, the rate of speed within certain described portions of any city, town, or village, and allowing another rate of speed in other portions thereof, which rate of speed shall not in any case exceed 6 miles an hour, unless the track is properly fenced:

(b) Make regulations with respect to the use of the steam whistle within any city, town, or village, or any portion thereof;

(c) Make regulations with respect to the method of passing from one car to another either inside or overhead, and for the safety of railway employés while passing from one car to another, and for the coupling of cars;

(d) Impose penalties, not exceeding $20 for each offense, on every person who offends against any regulation made under this section-which penalties shall be recoverable upon summary conviction;

(e) The imposition of any such penalties shall not lessen or affect any other liability which any person may have incurred.

11. The railway committee shall have power to inquire into, hear, and determine any application, complaint, or dispute respecting

(a) Any right of way over or through lands owned or occupied by any company;

(6) Changes in location for lessening a curve, reducing a gradient, or benefiting

the railway, or for other purposes of public advantage;

(d) The crossing of the tracks of one company by the tracks of another company; (e) The alignment, arrangement, disposition, or location of tracks;

(f) The use by one company of the tracks, stations or station grounds of another

company;

(g) The construction of works in navigable waters;

The construction of railways upon, along, and across highways;

(i) The proportion in which the cost of fencing the approaches to crossings on railways constructed or under construction on the 19th of April, 1884, shall be borne by the company and the municipality or person interested;

(j) The compensation to be made to any person or company in respect of any work or measure directed to be made or taken, or the cost thereof, or the proportion of such cost to be borne by any person or company;

(k) Tolls and rates for the transportation of passengers and freight; (1) The adjustment of such tolls, rates between companies,

(m) Running powers or haulage;

(n) Traffic arrangements;

(o) Transshipment or interchange of freight;

(p) Unjust preferences, discrimination, or extortion;

(4) Any highway or street, ditch, or sewer, water, gas, or other pipes, or mains over or through lands owned or occupied by the company; or

(r) Any matter, act, or thing, which by this or the special act is sanctioned, required to be done, or prohibited.

12. The railway committee or the minister may appoint or direct any person to make an inquiry and report upon any application, complaint, or dispute pending before such committee, or any matter or thing connected there with or incident thereto.

15. The railway committee, the minister, and every such engineer, commissioner, or person, shall have the same power to enforce the attendance of witnesses and to compel them to give evidence and produce the books, papers, or things which they are required to produce, as is vested in any court in civil cases.

16. Every person summoned to attend before the railway committee, or the minister, or before any such engineer, commissioner, or person, shall receive the same fees and allowances for so doing as if summoned to attend before a court of civil jurisdiction in the Province in which he is required to appear.

17. Any decision or order made by the railway committee under this act may be made an order of the exchequer court of Canada, or of any superior court of any Province of Canada, and shall be enforced in like manner as any rule or order of such court.

18. The railway committee may review and rescind or vary any decision or order previously made by it.

19. The railway committee may, if it thinks fit, at the instance of any party to the proceedings before it, and upon such security being given as it directs, state a case in writing for the opinion of the supreme court of Canada upon any question which in the opinion of the committee is a question of law.

20. The supreme court of Canada shall hear and determine the question or questions of law arising thereon and remit the matter to the railway committee, with the opinion of the court thereon.

21. Subject to the provisions of section 18, every decision and order of the railway committee shall be final: Provided always, that either party may petition the governor in council, and the governor in council may, in his discretion, rescind, change, or vary such order as he deems just and proper.

22. The costs of and incidental to any proceeding before the railway committee shall be in the discretion of the committee.

23. Every document purporting to be signed by the chairman and secretary of the railway committee, or by either of them, or by the minister, shall be received in evidence without proof of any such signature, and until the contrary is proved shall be deemed to have been so signed and to have been duly executed or issued by such committee or by the minister as the case may be.

24. Every decision and order of the railway committee shall be considered as made known to the company by a notice thereof, signed by the chairman and the secretary of the committee or by either of them and delivered to the president, vice-president, managing director, secretary, or superintendent of the company, or at the office of the company; and every order of the minister or of the inspecting engineer shall be deemed to be made known to the company by a notice thereof, signed respectively by the minister or the engineer, and delivered as above mentioned.

25. Every company shall, as soon as possible after the receipt of any order or notice of the railway committee or the minister or the inspecting engineer, give cognizance thereof to each of its officers and servants, by delivering a copy to him, or by posting up a copy thereof in some place where his work or his duties, or some of them, are to be performed.

57. No person who holds any office, place, or employment in, or who is concerned or interested in any contract under or with the company, or is surety for any contractor, shall be capable of being chosen a director, or of holding the office of director, nor shall any person who is a director of the company enter into, or be directly or indirectly, for his own use and benefit, interested in any contract with the company, other than a contract which relates to the purchase of land necessary for the railway, or be or become a partner of or surety for any contractor with the company.

62. The directors shall cause to be kept and, annually, on the 30th day of June, to be made up and balanced, a true, exact, and particular account of the moneys collected and received by the company or by the directors or managers thereof, or otherwise for the use of the company, and of the charges and expenses attending the erect

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ing, making, supporting, maintaining, and carrying on the undertaking, and of all other receipts and expenditures of the company or the directors.

71. No dividends shall be declared whereby the capital of the company is in any degree reduced or impaired, or be paid out of such capital, nor shall any dividend be paid in respect of any share, after a day appointed for payment of any call for money in respect thereof, until such call has been paid; but the directors may, in their discretion, until the railway is completed and opened to the public, pay interest at any rate not exceeding 6 per centum per annum on all sums called up in respect of the shares, from the respective days on which the same have been paid; and such interest shall accrue and be paid at such times and places as the directors appoint for that purpose,

72. No interest shall accrue to any shareholder in respect of any share upon which any call is in arrear, or in respect to any other share held by such shareholder while such call remains unpaid.

223. Subject to the provisions and restrictions in this and in the special act contained, the company may, by by-laws, or the directors, if thereunto authorized by the by-laws, may, from time to time, fix and regulate the tolls to be demanded and taken for all passengers and goods transported upon the railway, or in steam vessels belonging to the company.

224. Such tolls may be fixed either for the whole or for any particular portions of the railway; but all such tolls shall always, under the same circumstances, be charged equally to all persons, and at the same rate, whether per ton, per mile, or otherwise, in respect of all passengers and goods and railway carriages of the same description, and conveyed or propelled by a like railway carriage or engine, passing only over the same portion of the line of railway; and no reduction or advance in any such tolls shall be made, either directly or indirectly, in favor of or against any particular company or person traveling upon or using the railway.

225. The tolls fixed for large quantities or long distances may be proportionately less than the tolls fixed for small quantities or short distances, if such tolls are, under the same circumstances, charged equally to all persons; but in respect of quantity no special toll or rate shall be given or fixed for any quantity less than one carload of at least ten tons.

226. The company, in fixing or regulating the tolls to be demanded and taken for the transportation of goods, shall, except in respect to through traffic to or from the United States, adopt and conform to any uniform classification of freight which the governor in council on the report of the minister, from time to time, prescribes.

227. No tolls shall be levied or taken until the by-law fixing such tolls has been approved by the governor in council, nor until after two weekly publications in the Canada Gazette of such by-law and of the order in council approving thereof; nor shall any company levy or collect any money for services as a common carrier except subject to the provisions of this act.

228. Every by-law fixing and regulating tolls shall be subject to revision by the governor in council, from time to time, after approval thereof; and after an order in council altering the tolls fixed and regulated by any by-law has been twice published in the Canada Gazette, the tolls mentioned in such order in council shall be substituted for those mentioned in the by-law, so long as the order in council remains unrevoked.

229. In all cases a fraction in the distance over which goods or passengers are transported on the railway shall be considered as a whole mile; and for a fraction of a ton in the weight of any goods, a proportion of the tolls shall be demanded and taken, according to the number of quarters of a ton contained therein, and a fraction of a quarter of a ton shall be deemed and considered as a whole quarter of a ton.

230. The company shall, from time to time, cause to be printed and posted up in its offices, and in every place where the tolls are to be collected, in some conspicuous position, a printed board or paper, exhibiting all the rates of tolls payable, and particularizing the price or sum of money to be charged or taken for the carriage of any matter or thing.

231. Such tolls shall be paid to such persons and at such places, near to the railway, in such manner and under such regulations as the by-laws direct.

232. No company, in fixing any toll or rate, shall, under like conditions and circumstances, make any unjust or partial discrimination between different localities; but no discrimination between localities, which by reason of competition by water or railway, it is necessary to make to secure traffic, shall be deemed to be unjust or partial.

233. No company shall make or give any secret special toll, rate, rebate, drawback, or concession to any person; and every company shall, on the demand of any person, make known to him any special rate, rebate, drawback, or concession given to any one.

238. The directors of any company may, at any time, make and enter into any agreement or arrangement with any other company, either in Canada or elsewhere, for the regulation and interchange of traffic passing to and from the company's railways, and for the working of the traffic over the said railways respectively, or for either of those objects separately, and for the division and apportionment of tolls, rates, and charges in respect of such traffic, and generally in relation to the management and working of the railways, or any of them, or any part thereof, and of any railway or railways in connection therewith, for any term not exceeding twenty-one years, and to provide, either by proxy or otherwise, for the appointment of a joint committee or committees for the better carrying into effect any such agreement or arrangement, with such powers and functions as are considered necessary or expe dient, subject to the consent of two-thirds of the stockholders voting in personor by proxy, and also to the approval of the governor in council.

239. Before such approval is given, notice of the application therefor shall be published in the Canada Gazette for at least two months previously to the time therein named for the making of such application; and such notice shall state a time and place when the application is to be made, and that all persons interested may then and there appear and be heard on such application.

240. Every company shall, according to its power, afford all reasonable facilities to any other railway company for the receiving and forwarding and delivery of traffic upon and from the several railways belonging to or worked by such companies respectively, and for the return of carriages, trucks, and other vehicles; and no such company shall make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to or in favor of any particular person or company, or any particular description of traffic in any respect whatsoever, nor shall any such company subject any particular person or company, or any particular description of traffic to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever; and every company which has or works a railway which forms part of a continuous line of railway, or which intersects any other railway, or which has any terminus, station, or wharf near to any terminus, station, or wharf of any other railway, shall afford all due and reasonable facilities for receiving and forwarding by its railway all the traffic arriving by such other railway, without any unreasonable delay, and without any such preference or advantage, or prejudice or disadvantage, as aforesaid, and so that no obstruction is offered to the public desirous of using such railway as a continuous line of communication, and so that all reasonable accommodation, by means of the railways of the several companies, is, at all times, afforded to the public in that behalf; and any agreement made between any two or more companies contrary to this section shall be unlawful, and null and void.

241. Every officer, servant, or agent of any company, having the superintendence of the traffic at any station or depot thereof, who refuses or neglects to receive, convey, or deliver at any station or depot of the company for which they are destined, any passenger, goods, or thing, brought, conveyed, or delivered to him or such company, for conveyance over or along its railway from that of any other company, intersecting or being near to such first-mentioned railway, or who in any way willfully violates the provisions of the next preceding section, and the company first mentioned are, for each such refusal, neglect, or offense, severally liable, on summary conviction, to a penalty not exceeding fifty dollars over and above the actual damages sustained; which penalty shall be recoverable with costs, by the railway company or by any person aggrieved by such neglect or refusal, and such penalty shall belong to the said railway company, or other person so aggrieved.

242. Every company which grants any facilities to any incorporated express company or person shall grant equal facilities on equal terms and conditions to any other incorporated express company which demands the same.

276. No company shall, either directly or indirectly, employ any of its funds in the purchase of its own stock, or in the acquisition of any shares, bonds, or other securities issued by any other railway company in Canada; but this shall not affect the powers or rights which any company in Canada now has or possesses by virtue of any special act to acquire, have, or hold the shares, bonds, or other securities of any railway company in the United States of America or Canada; nor shall it interfere with the right conferred on the Northern Railway Company of Canada, or the Hamilton and Northwestern Railway Company, to acquire stock in the Northern and Pacific Junction Railway Company, under the acts relating to the said first-named companies, respectively, passed by the Parliament of Canada in the forty-seventh year of Her Majesty's reign.

277. Every director of a railway company who knowingly permits the funds of any such company to be applied in violation of the next preceding section shall incur a penalty of $1,000 for each such violation, which penalty shall be recoverable on information filed in the name of the attorney-general of Canada; and a moiety thereof shall belong to Her Majesty, and the other moiety thereof shall belong to the in

former; and the acquisition of each share, bond, or other security, or interest, as aforesaid, shall be deemed a separate violation of the provisions aforesaid.

289. Every company, director, or officer doing, or causing or permitting to be done, any matter, act or thing contrary to the provisions of this or the special act, or to the orders or directions of the governor in council, or of the railway committee or minister made hereunder, or omitting to do any matter, act, or thing required to be done on the part of any such company, director, or officer, is liable to any person injured thereby for the full amount of damages sustained by such act or omission; and if no other penalty is in this or the special act provided for any such act or omission, is liable, for each offense, to a penalty of not less than $20, and not more than $5,000 in the discretion of the court before which the same is recoverable.

(2) This section shall only apply to companies and directors and officers of companies within the legislative authority of the parliament of Canada.

290. Every person from whom any company exacts any unjust or extortionate toll, rate, or charge shall, in addition to the amount so unjustly exacted, be entitled to recover from the company as damages an amount equal to three times the amount so nnjustly exacted.

299. Every company shall annually prepare returns in accordance with the forms contained in schedule 1 to this act, of its capital, traffic, and working expenditure, and of all information required, as indicated in the said form, to be furnished to the minister; and such returns shall be dated and signed by, and attested upon the oath of the secretary, or some other chief officer of the company, and of the president, or, in his absence, of the vice-president or manager of the company.

(2) Such returns shall be made for the period included from the date to which the then last yearly returns made by the company extended, or from the commencement of the operation of the railway, if no such returns have been previously made, and, in either case, down to the last day of June in the then current year.

(3) A duplicate copy of such returns, dated, signed, and attested in manner aforesaid, shall be forwarded by such company to the minister within three months after the 1st day of July in each year.

(4) The company shall also, in addition to the information required to be furnished to the minister, as indicated in the said schedule 1, furnish such other information and returns as are, from time to time, required by the minister.

(5) Every company which makes default in forwarding such returns in accordance with the provisions of this section shall incur a penalty not exceeding $10 for every day during which such default continues.

(6) The minister shall lay before both houses of parliament, within twenty-one days from the commencement of each session thereof, the returns made and forwarded to him in pursuance of this section.

300. Every company shall, weekly, prepare returns of its traffic for the next preceding seven days, in accordance with the form contained in schedule two to this act, and a copy of such returns, signed by the officer of the company responsible for the correctness of such returns, shall be forwarded by the company to the minister, within seven days from the day in each week up to which the said returns have been prepared; and another copy of each of such returns, signed by the same officer, shall be posted up by the company within the same delay, and kept posted up for seven days, in some conspicuous place in the most public room in the head office of the company in Canada, and so that the same can be perused by all persons; and free access thereto shall be allowed to all persons during the usual hours of business at such office, on each day of the said seven days not being a Sunday or holiday.

(2) Every company which makes default in forwarding the said weekly returns to the minister, or which fails to post up and keep posted up a copy thereof as aforesaid, and to allow free access thereto as aforesaid, shall incur a penalty not exceeding $10 for every day during which such default continues.

301. Every person who, knowing the same to be false in any particular, signs any return required by the two sections next preceding, is gailty of a misdemeanor.

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