Inland Transit/Hemsley
Mr. Henry Hemsley.—p. 84.
1. Do you reside in London?
I do.
2. Are you a director of the Union Flint Glass Company?
I am.
3. Is that company supplied with glass from Birmingham?
We have factories there.
4. How many glasshouses have you in Birmingham? Eighteen.
5. How is glass at present sent from Birmingham to London?
By canal.
6. Tell us how many tons in the year? I believe about 1050; I have it from pretty correct data.
7. Would the establishment of a Railroad be a very great advantage to the glass trade of Birmingham and London?
It would be a great advantage, inasmuch as it would shorten the time of transits.
8. Is the glass sent by the fly boats, or the slow boats?
By boats of four days.
9. Is that what they call the fly boats?
The fly boats; the quickest conveyance we have.
10. Do you suffer any commercial inconvenience in your shipping orders by the delay?
We suffer very considerably. It frequently happens that ships are chartered or under engagements to go out on a certain day; when the ship has not her full freight, the owners of the vessel frequently, on their own account, say they will take freight at a certain rate under the ordinary price; any delay that then may arise loses us the order if we cannot get up the goods; if we had two days we could frequently get them. From the peculiar nature of glass manufacture the orders are received on a Monday morning, and we cannot possibly make them till Thursday; by the present conveyance we cannot get them till Monday, and almost all these ships sail on a Saturday. The ships sail frequently three or six weeks from each other; and although a vessel may be going in the interval she will not take them at a freight which will make it a profitable speculation. Many of our goods are conveyed by coasting vessels, and these coasting vessels always take their departure on a Saturday; our goods arrive on a Monday, and thus we lose a week. I could amplify instances; but the general nature of our trade is, that we cannot make them till Thursday, and we do not get them till Monday.
11. Suppose the Railroad to be established, would goods arrive in time for the ships on Saturday?
Yes. We receive orders for the foreign market for peculiar patterns on Monday; we can make the glass and have it in London ready to be shipped on Saturday. We frequently lose orders because we cannot do that.
12. The great advantage of this proposed Railroad will be the rapidity of communication?
Yes.
13. Besides that advantage, is there any other?
Yes; the saving of breakage.
14. What is your breakage at present?
Our average breakage is two and a half per cent. I take it that 1050 tons made at Birmingham and conveyed by canal come to somewhere about 200,000l., on which our average breakage is two and a half; I consider that on the Railroad it would not be a half per cent.
27. If the Railroad existed, would it be necessary to keep so large a stock in London as you do now?
Not half the amount.
28. Therefore less capital would be employed? Less capital. A number of our orders are for patterns that we never keep in stock, which are of peculiar make and shape.
29. When you speak of missing the opportunities for foreign orders by delay of communication, do you speak of circumstances which occur frequently, or are they rare?
They occur almost every week; I expect it this week in an order for Bombay. The ship is to sail on the 5th or 6th of July; it will be impossible to get the goods up by that time; we could get them here by the Saturday if there was a Railway.