The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1861-01-02 00:00:00

£20,567, the expenditure £8,689, and the profit
£10,878,

The general Census shews a national increase of 1
per cent. per annum, or 10 per cent. every 10 years ;
whereas the district of Wallasey shews a local increase
averaging 6 4-sths per cent. per annum, or 68 per cent.
every 10 years. And it must be quite clear to the
judgment of any person who has made statistical know-
ledge a pursuit, that if swift and suitable steamers were
to ply between these ferries more frequently, whether
the boats paid interest of money or not, the inhabitants
would be doubled in the first 10 years, aiid all the local
rates for gas, water, &c., thereby reduced one-half.
The small parcels traffic might be made a large and
lucrative source of revenue, if well looked after. - A
receiving place in Liverpool, and two or more daily
deliveries in Cheshire should be established to create this
intome, which wonld be nearly all profit.
Mr. Coulborti stated that he bad in one day taken as
much as h9di all in threepenees, at New trighton
alone, this amount represents '8,200 persons, or ohly
nne-half that number if the whole of them returned by
his boats the same day, 11,600. Now, the number of
passengers intended to be carried in your large new
swift boats would enable you to double, treble, or
quadruple the traffic on such occasions, and realise an
enormous profit.
Iri order to understand the nature of the Mersey
ferries! passenger traffie perfectlY, we must aniPlify the
subject. Taking all the boats together they ruti ac'ros's
the ri've'r abbot idd,odd tinier iii a year, *itli ati average
of 150 passengers per trip in summer, and 60 in winter;
making a total of 11,000,000 of single passenger

crossings,

It is from this source, or fountain, that you will have
to draw your revenue, and clear at least some small
profit, in order to reduce our local rates, instead of
levying a new one ; and this may be done by going to
work at first with care and frugality) instead of extra-
vagant outlay, by hiring boats on the thenpbst thins)
and contracting with competent builders for the eCoho,
mieal construction of five new ones, with which number
you could easily perform the service cheaper, quicker,
oftener, and more comfortably, in every respect, than it
is now done.

You might then encourage a largely increased traffic;
by
.arrangliii thiOughotit fat* and rates With the various
railway coiiipanies in tiiti Manntactiiting districts ; by
covering the decks of the boats in summer with
awnings ; by judiciously separating the contractors and
residents of each ferry, with their families and visitors,
from the excursionists; which agreeable division would
give much satisfaction to all parties, &c., &c.
The conclusions to be drawn from these data, being
legitimate sources; appear therefore to suggest the fol-
lowing estithates Of. eapitab tetehtte, eipendittire, and
profit, whiCh latter, would, iii my opinion, be eiceeded ;
but in all such cases I have invariably made a point
of under rather than everestimating the receipts-: and
in the present instance I am guided by My own et-
OHMIC° rathbf than b tilh tl jinidiis tit dtlitiliersons,
namely, the capital ultimately required, £15,570; the
expected revenue, £24,600 ; and the expenditure, the
highest computed, including sinking fund and everything,
£22,6Bo—leaving a profit, for reduction on local rates,
of 10d in the pound, £1920.
The whole of Messrs. Conlborn's 7 boats are liCensed
to carry 3,323 passengers ; average 475 each : whereas
5 new boats would carry 4,000 passengers; average 800
each boat. rout- of these superior -vessels could be
Worked with faeility in stiMmet eiiety quarter of an hour
froth each terry, yet remain inactive one-third or one-
fourth of their time, for damping fires and easing
machinery ; while the fifth boat might be laid up,
under repair, or running extra trips, according to cir-
cumstances. _ _ _

I was comparatively ignorant of this part of the
subject before I made a tour of inspection of the ferries
in America, where they economise time by seconds
instead of by minutes; where, in starting their ferry
boat, a man stands by to let go the warp on the first
stroke of the clock or bell, and, on arrival, to belay
instanter. The same smart discipline ought to be
introduced on the Mersey ; and gangways, the means of
Ingress and egress, considerably improved.
By simple arrangement, each man in the service
Might be allowed to attend his plate of it'otship in turn
on the Sabbath Day, instead of belq; compelled to
absent himself habitually from the House of God, which
appears to be the case at present.
Your obedient servant,
BRAITHWAITE POOLE.

To-morrow evening the Commissioners will
meet to decide this important question, when, it
is to be hoped, they *ill irrevocably seal the
doom of the present Egremont Perry and the
whole fleet of boats -which are really a disgrace
to the enlightenment of the age, and, until re-
moved, constitute an effectual barrier to the pro-
gress of a district. whose resources are capable of
being developed to an extent little thought of
under the present deficient system of ferryage.