have been operated and administered by the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive, which consisted of a chairman and two full-time members.
For the purposes of operation the Executive divided the canal-system into four divisions, apart from Scotland (the Scottish canals being administered separately): (1) NorthEastern, based on the Humber estuary; (2) North-Western, based on the Mersey estuary; (3) South-Eastern, based on the Thames estuary; (4) South-Western, based on the Severn estuary.
The Executive decentralized administration as far as possible, and the divisional waterways officer in each case was given wide powers in the management of local business. At the end of 1952 the Executive was employing 4,795 staff in connection with its inland waterways, and operated 1,243 carrying craft, which, with the craft of many independent operators, carried 12,442,000 tons of traffic during the year. The Executive also administered the small docks which used to belong to canal companies and the docks which used to belong to the railways and which were nationalized by the Transport Act, 1947. The only exceptions were those which were mainly interchange points between railways and railway-owned steamer services which were administered by the Railway Executive (see p. 190). Altogether the Executive controlled over 40 major ex-railway-owned docks. Here again they adopted a policy of decentralization and much responsibility was left to the docks managers who worked under the Executive. The general policy has been to carry out as much maintenance and improvement work as possible, so as to ensure quick turn-round in the ports, within the limits of the capital investment expenditure available. To this end, Port Advisory Committees representing labour and shipping and trading interests have been set up in a number of ports and attention is being paid to increased mechanical handling of cargo. At the end of 1952 the Executive was employing 20,816 people on the docks under its control. Over 68 million tons of import and export cargo were handled during 1952 at all the British Transport Commission docks, including those operated by the Railway Executive. The Ulster Transport Authority Public inland transport in Northern Ireland, with the exception of passenger transport in the City of Belfast, a section of the railway system previously owned by the Great Northern Railway Company (Ireland), and some small rail and road transport undertakings, is owned and controlled by the Ulster Transport Authority established under the Transport Act (Northern Ireland), 1948. The railway system formerly operated by the Great Northern Railway Company (Ireland) has passed to a public body called the Great Northern Railway Board, established on 1st September 1953 by the Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland Governments. Before the 1948 Act was passed, all the railways in Northern Ireland were separately owned and, from 1935, road transport (except for passenger transport in Belfast City and certain types of specialized and ancillary freight haulage) was under the control of the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board, a public undertaking formed to provide public transport services by road and to co-ordinate these services with those of the railways. Now the Ulster Transport Authority operates all the road services formerly provided by the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board, together with the railway services provided before 1949 by the Northern Counties Committee of the British Railways Executive and by the Belfast and County Down Railway Company. When the railway undertaking of the Northern Counties Committee was acquired by the Ulster Transport Authority from the British Transport Commission in 1949 it was agreed that each of the parties should co-operate with the other to foster and encourage
