CONFERENCE RULING.*

April 15, 1913.

Commissions on Telegraphic Business. [Ed.]

In a case involving a custom of a telegraph company to install wires and instruments in business houses and to arrange with the house on some plan of operating same, it appears in some instances that the telegraph company pays nothing for the space occupied but gives a part of the telegraph receipts to the operator, who is also employed by the house; in other instances the telegraph company pays a regular wage to the operator and gives a proportion of the receipts to the house; in instances where such commissions are paid, the telegraph business of the house itself also carries the commission to the operator or to the house, according to the arrangement. The Commission holds that it is unlawful for a telegraph company to pay to the firm or house in whose building the telegraph office is located, any commission on its own business.

*This ruling has been given no number as yet.-Ed.

755

CANADA.

Board of Railway Commissioners.

IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION OF THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF TORONTO, HEREINAFTER CALLED THE “APPLICANT", UNDER THE RAILWAY ACT AS AMENDED BY 7-8 EDWARD VII, CHAPTER 61, FOR an Order REQUIRING THE BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY OF CANADA, HEREINAFTER CALLED THE “TELEPHONE COMPANY", TO FILE WITH THE BOARD TARIFFS OF TOLLS, APPLYING THE SAME TOLLS TO THE TERRITORY RECENTLY ANNEXED TO THE CITY OF TORONTO AND FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE TOWN OF NORTH TORONTO AND MOORE PARK DISTRICT, AS ARE NOW CHARGED WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE TELEPHONE COMPANY'S TORONTO EXCHANGES FOR TORONTO EXCHANGE SERVICE.

File No. 3574.74

Decided March 8, 1913.

Extension of Local Flat Rates to Newly Annexed TerritoryExtra Mileage Charges.

Upon application by the City of Toronto for the extension of the Toronto flat rates to the recently annexed districts known as North Toronto and Moore Park, the Company admitted that Moore Park was entitled to the Toronto rates and consequently the issue was confined to the North Toronto district.

It appeared that the rates authorized for North Toronto were the Toronto flat rates plus an extra mileage charge of $5 per quarter mile or fraction thereof, to be computed from a point three-quarters of a mile from the nearest exchange. This allowance of three-quarters of a mile of free mileage represented the average mileage of wire per telephone in the City of Toronto. Held: That the mere annexation of North Toronto to the City does not warrant an order for the application of the Toronto flat rates to that district; That the circumstances and conditions affecting telephone service in North Toronto, which is almost entirely a residential section, are not similar to the circumstances and conditions existing within the Toronto Exchange limits;

That there has not been sufficient development in North Toronto to entitle the district to the Toronto flat rates;

That extra mileage charges should be computed only from the exchange limits within which a flat rate is applied;

That the Company should file a new tariff, extending the Toronto flat rates to Moore Park and providing that the extra mileage charges for North Toronto shall be computed from the limits of the Toronto Exchange as they existed on January 1, 1911.

An order was entered accordingly.*

OPINION.

Assistant Chief Commissioner:

This is an application by the City of Toronto to have the Toronto telephone rates of $50.00 for business and $30.00 for residence telephones, per annum, apply to North Toronto and Moore Park, two districts which have recently been annexed to the City of Toronto.

Moore Park being near Deer Park and Rosedale, two parts of Toronto which enjoy the Toronto rate, and being substantially similar in circumstances and conditions to those sections, is entitled to the Toronto rate; and, at the hearing this was admitted by the Company. Moore Park may, therefore, be not considered further in this matter.

The North Toronto rate is fixed by Supplement No. 10 to the Bell Telephone Company's schedule of rates authorized at Toronto Exchange, dated May 1st, 1911, and filed with this Board as C. R. C. No. 1708. That tariff, which provides the flat rate per annum of $50 for business and $30 for residence telephones, states that these charges are to "apply to subscribers' stations situated within Toronto Exchange limits, which are the limits of the City of Toronto, as of date January 1st, 1911," with extra mileage at the rate of $5.00 per quarter mile or fraction thereof to be computed from a point three-quarters of a mile distant from the nearest exchange.

The nearest Exchange to North Toronto is the North Exchange, near the corner of Yonge and Bismark Streets. This Exchange is one and three-quarter miles south of the southern boundary of North Toronto, so that under the tariff a person residing within North Toronto, but a few feet north of its southern boundary, must pay an extra mileage of *Editor's headnote.

$20. That is, the Company allows a free area of threequarters of a mile from its Exchange before commencing to compute its extra mileage of $5.00 per one-quarter of a mile.

This free area of the first three-quarters of a mile in extra mileage was brought about by a decision of the late Chief Commissioner, Judge Mabee, at the hearing of an application of the Town of North Toronto of the same nature as the present application which was heard by the Board in Toronto on April 26th, 1911. At that time the late Chief Commissioner, recognizing that the circumstances and conditions affecting telephone service in the Town of North Toronto were dissimilar from those in the City, refused the Town's application; but decided that, as the average mileage of wire for a City of Toronto telephone was three-quarters of a mile, a free allowance equal to this average mileage (i. e., 3/4 of a mile) should be allowed before the point from which extra mileage was to be charged should be reached.

Now, what has happened since Judge Mabee's decision to warrant this Board in taking a different view of the matter from what it took at that time? There has been no change in so far as the Exchange is concerned. The people having telephones in North Toronto were then, and are still, connected with the North Exchange of the City of Toronto. At that time there were 157 telephones, and now there are 273 telephones in North Toronto-an increase of 116. The population to-day is 6,300. I do not know what it was at the time of the hearing in April, 1911, but of course, it has, no doubt, increased considerably since then.

The chief ground upon which this application is urged is the fact that North Toronto is now within the City limits. Unless there was something in the language of the tariff to compel the Company to apply the Toronto rate, from time to time, to any district that was annexed to the City, I do not see that the mere annexation of North Toronto to the City would warrant this Board in making the order applied for. In will be observed that in fixing the Toronto Exchange Territory, the Company took as its limits the limits of the City of Toronto as of the date January 1st, 1911, and therefore its Exchange limits being fixed by the limits of the City

on that date, the territory subsequently annexed would not, ipso facto, become entitled to the benefit of the Toronto flat rates.

The law provides that all tolls shall always, under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, be charged equally to all persons and at the same rate. From the evidence submitted to us, and from an examination of the North Toronto District and other districts of the City of Toronto, I am forced to come to the conclusion that the circumstances and conditions affecting telephone service in North Toronto are not similar to the circumstances and conditions existing within the Toronto Exchange limits.

The City urged at the hearing that the circumstances and conditions in North Toronto were similar to those in West Toronto. I do not think they are. North Toronto is almost entirely a residential section. The inhabited portions of it constitute a long narrow area following the lines of Yonge Street. The people who live in North Toronto have treir places of business, or are employed in the portion of the City of Toronto south of the southern boundary of North Toronto. There are few shops or commercial industries within its limits; whereas West Toronto, before its annexation to the City, was a town of considerable size and might have existed anywhere in the Province irrespective of the fact that it was adjacent to the City of Toronto. West Toronto had a number of large manufacturing concerns. There were a number of doctors, lawyers, banks, retail establishments containing all lines of articles required for household consumption, places of amusement and recreation, etc., within its limits. At the time of its annexation to Toronto, West Toronto had a telephone exchange of its own, with rates for local calls lower than the rates existing in the City of Toronto.

At the time of the annexation of West Toronto to the City, when the Board decided that Toronto rates should apply and that the extra toll for calls from West Toronto to the City should be abolished, some of those having telephones in West Toronto protested that they did not wish to have. the City of Toronto rates apply. The circumstances and