after the first day of January one thousand eight Sect. 2. hundred and ninety-three, shall if required by the Postmaster-General, perform with respect to any tramway owned or worked by the company all such reasonable services in regard to the conveyance of mails (b) as the Postmaster-General from time to time requires: Provided as follows: (a.) Nothing in this section shall authorise the Post master-General to require mails (b) in excess of (i.) If the carriage is conveying or intended (iii.) If the carriage is conveying or intended (b.) Mails (b) when carried in or upon a carriage Sect. 2. officer of the Post Office in charge thereof shall not be interfered with. (c.) Nothing in this section shall authorise the Postmaster-General to require any mails (b) to be carried in or upon a carriage conveying or intended to convey passengers but not goods or parcels, except in charge of an officer of the Post Office travelling as a passenger. (.) If goods as well as passengers and parcels are carried on the tramway the enactments relating to the conveyance of mails by railway (ƒ) shall, subject to the provisions of this section, apply in like manner as if the tramway company were a railway company, and the tramway were a railway.. (2.) The remuneration for any services performed in pursuance of this section shall be such as may be from time to time determined by agreement between the Postmaster-General and the tramway company, or, in default of agreement, by the Railway and Canal Commission (e), and this provision shall have effect in lieu of any provisions respecting remuneration contained in the enactments relating to the conveyance of mails by railway (ƒ) which are applied by this section. (3.) For the purpose of this section a requisition by the Postmaster-General may be signified by writing under the hand of any person who is at the time either Postmaster-General or a Secretary or Assistant Secretary of the Post Office, or the Inspector-General of Mails; and any document purporting to be signed by any such person as aforesaid shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed, without proof of the official character of such person, to have been duly signed as required by this section (g). (a) This will include lessees under sect. 19 or licensees under sect. 35 of Tramways Act, 1870. (b) Defined in sect. 5. (c) For such provision see the model Tramways Order, post, p. 440, and the Light Railways Orders, pp. 575, 618. (d) Compare the schedule to the model Tramways Order (post, p. 446). Similar provisions are applied to light railways of Class B (post, p. 633). (e) This section brings tramways for the first time in any respect within the jurisdiction of the Railway and Canal Commission, and the remarks of Wills, J., to the contrary effect, in Swansea Improvements and Tramway Co. v. Swansea Urban Sanitary Authority, [1892] 1 Q. B. 357; 61 L. J. M. C. 124, must now be modified to this extent. Another small exception to the accuracy of these remarks will be found in note (o) to Rule XXI. of the Tramways Rules. (f) That is to say, Railways (Conveyance of Mails) Act, 1838 (1 & 2 Vict. c. 98); Regulation of Railways Act, 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 85), s. 11; Regulation of Railways Act, 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c. 119), ss. 36, 37; Regulation of Railways Act, 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. c. 48), ss. 3, 18, 19, 20; and, as to parcels (see sect. 5 below), Post Office (Parcels) Act, 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 74). (g) Compare Regulation of Railways Act, 1868, s. 37. Sect. 2. mails on 3. Every tramroad (h) authorised (h) by any Act (h) Carriage of passed after the first day of January one thousand tramroads. eight hundred and ninety-three (i) shall, for the purposes of the conveyance of mails (h), be deemed to be a railway, and the enactments relating to the conveyance of mails by railway (k) shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, apply to every such tramroad and to the company, body, or person owning or working the same as if the tramroad were a railway, and the company, body, or person were a railway company. (h) Defined in sect. 5. (i) Where a tramway authorised before this date is dealt with by a subsequent Act or Order, it is usual to insert a provision that the present Act shall apply to it as though it had been authorised after this date. (k) See note (ƒ) to sect. 2. tion of 4. Notwithstanding anything in the Railway and DeterminaCanal Traffic Act, 1888, any matter of difference differences. directed to be determined by the Railway and Canal 51 & 52 Vict. c. 25. Sect. 4. Definitions. 36 & 37 Vict. c. 48. 45 & 46 Vict. c. 74. 27 & 28 Vict. c. 121. 53 & 54 Vict. c. 52. Commission under this Act may in the discretion of the Commission be heard and determined by the two appointed Commissioners, whose order shall be deemed to be the order of the Commission, and subject to this provision all proceedings relating to any such matter of difference shall be conducted by the Commission in the same manner as any other proceeding is conducted by them under the Railway and Canal Traffic Acts, 1873 and 1888, or any Act amending the same, and any order of the Commission upon any such difference shall be enforceable as any other order of the Commission. 5.—(1.) In this Act The expression "mails" has the same meaning as in The expression "Act" means any Act of Parlia The expression "tramroad" means any tramroad or (2.) A railway, tramway, or tramroad shall be deemed to be authorised by an Act passed after the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three, where the construction of the railway, tramway, or tramroad is first authorised, or where the time for its construction is extended, by an Act passed after the date aforesaid. (1) See sect. 3, whereby "mails" includes mail-bags and postletter bags. (m) See sects. 16, 17. (n) Thus this Act does not extend to tramways constructed under Tramways (Scotland) Act, 1861, nor light railways of whatever type constructed under a Light Railway Order. But the latter are made subject to the general enactments relating to railways, which would include those relating to the conveyance of mails by railways, unless there be any special provision to the contrary (Light Railways Act, 1896, s. 12), and therefore are placed in a similar position to that in which "tramroads" are placed by sect. 3 of the present Act. (0) The expression "tramroad" in itself would cover the tramways and light railways mentioned in the last note. But, nevertheless, the Act does not thereby extend to them, for sect. 3, which deals with "tramroads," is confined to "tramroads" authorised by an "Act." With this use of "tramroad" as a more comprehensive term than "tramway" compare the use of "railroad" as more comprehensive than "railway" in Regulation of the Forces Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 86), s. 16, and Workmen's Compensation Act, 1897 (60 & 61 Vict. c. 37), s. 7 (2), as to which see Fletcher v. London United Tramways, Ltd., [1902] 2 K. B. 269; 71 L. J. K. B. 653 (C. A.). (p) Before the passing of the present Act it was held in Clogher Valley Tramway Co., Ltd. v. R. (1892), 30 L. R. I. 316, that a steam tramway in Ireland was not a "railway" within Post Office (Parcels) Act, 1882, and therefore not subject to the provisions of that Act. Sect. 5. 6. This Act may be cited as the Conveyance of Short title. Mails Act, 1893. |