The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-04-20 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS.

The American account of the great .fight in
another part of this sheet illustrates the distorted,
untruthful, and blustering manner in which facts
are dealt with by the Yankee Press when their own
inflated self-esteem is supposed to be concerned.
If, in times past, Liverpool has enjoyed rather
an unenviable reputation for its insalubrity, it
ought to do so no longer. Of late years much
has been done—and done successfully and with
most telling effect—to redeem its character, and
to raise it to the position of being a comparatively
clean and healthy town. It will be seen from
the annual report of the Medical Officer of Health
for the borough, presented to the Health Com-
mittee yesterday, that our assertion is borne out
by unquestionable and most cheering facts. ' The
expenditure for purely sanitary purposes in this
town has been upwards of two millions sterling,
exclusive of more than a million and a half for
an abundant supply a water. In all, consider-
ably upwards of the enormous sum of three
millions and a half ! Has this large amount been
judiciously expended, and what has been the
result? The answer. is as ready as it is satisfac-
tory. The Registrar-General, who has, if we
mistake not, been suspected of a bias against this
locality, has at length been constrained to
record his opinion that " the expenditure up
to the present time has borne ample fruits." So
much for the Registrar-General's opinion. But.
there was yesterday announced a fact which is
still more valuable and conclusive on this vital
question. It is this: The number of people who
died in Liverpool last year was less than in any-
previous year within the knowledge of man ! •
Buis more than this. As compared with other
large towns the result is equally satisfactory.
Take Manchester, Glasgow, and London, and the
greatly increased salubrity of Liverpool only
becomes more apparent. For the figures and
other details we must refer to this interesting
document itself as given in another column.
The official consideration of the greatly desi-
derated improvement of Horse. Railways for
Liverpool, it is said, only waits for the town-
clerk's report •to the Health Committee. The
borough engineer has prepared his report, and no
doubt the town-clerk will shortly -be in the same
position. Birkenheod has taken- the lead in thii
matter. How long will Liverpool lag behind? .
The early-closing movemenNand the cause of the
assistant and employe generally, hive .receivecl a
great lift by the wise and humane resolution of
the Health Committee-of this borough, yesterday,
that the wages of all the servants of the committee
should be paid on Friday evening instead of Satur-
day. We trust such a praiseworthy example will
be extensively followed both by public and pri-
vate employers here and elsewhere. The bene-
ficial effects of such an arrangement it would be
difficult to over-estimate. , -
At the usual Dock Board meeting
_yesterday—,
a...suer illustration was /7/4, n't 01P alogracefni
system of fraudulent dealings which of late has
been found, in various shapes, more or less, to
pervade almost every branch. •of our "great "
commercial community. A Riga firm of ship-
owners has written to the Dock Board, request-
ing an explanation of certain surcharges, amount-
ing to about twenty pounds, recently made on
their vessels visiting this port. On investigation
it turns out that the Deck-dues" charged to the
foreign house, by their Liverpool a,gerits, were
about twenty pounds over and above the
amount actually paid by these agents -to the
officials of the Dock Board ; 'and, therefore,-
that the private agents of the house, and
not the Dock Board or its officials, . had made
the overcharge.. Of course it is neither our prC-
vince nor our inclination to charge the respect-'
able firm named in the report with fraudulent
dealing. But it is `very clear that there has been
a fraud somewhere. It may concern individuals
to nicely adjust the apportionment of the guilts
but it is to be feared that the disgraceful, fact just
elicited cannot be disproved ; and, when taken in
connection with recent events, it is c:ne eminently
discouraging to all who wish well to Liverpool
and our commercial community generally. •
Let us hope, however, that the renarkS
of one member, tending to implicate the general;
body of Liverpool merchants,. were founded mote
in his zeal for commercial integrity and. haiour
than in actual fact. ' We would more g.adly
accept the statement of another member who -
expressed his conviction that fraud was not_the
rule of action in Liverpool with regard to wing
dues ; indeed,' he . was quite 'sure it . was entirely
the eiceptien,—a ;conviction with which many of
the memberii spontaneously expressed their gym-.
pathy. Wherever the blame May ,lie, ari between
the home and foreign houses, it is satisfactoy to
find that the Liverpool dock officials are entirely
acquitted of all participation in, or knowledge of,
the act of fraud thus revealed.

Not many months ago, when it was -though to
be something more than quite possible the an
occasion might speedily arise, rendering it limes-
sary for us at a moment's notice to man ever: one
of Her Majesty's ships that could be put t; sea;
Ministers propounded a scheme to, enable is to
meet any such emergency, by providing a bevy
Reserve. Many changes have since passedover
the face of affairs ; but it is still the. geicral
opinion that we ought to be prepared to mai our
fleet on the shortest notice, in case of need It
is, therefore, a matter of no small concern t us
that this project of a Navy Reserve has timed
out a dead failure, and that we are low,
after the lapse of ten months, as far 'rom
our object as ever. Two methods are now
suggested, either or both of which, it is.thoig,ht,
might be successfully employed in effectuallypro-
viding men for the fleet. Either, it is said let
us buy up a reserve ready grown—not by mating
the niggardly offer of L. 5 a-year. to merclant-
seamen to induce them to keep themselves wthin
easy call, but by a fair and generous offer, sub as
would unquestionably secure their services; or
to train up a reserve from the ungrown, udu-
cated, and uncared-for boys, which are to b(had
in any number at any moment, by having the
fleet, in these times of peace, at once half-haided
by such boys. so that they may be bred up it the
best of all schools for future tars. Why no try
both methods ? -Whatever scheme is adoptel, A
is clearly absurd to go on spending so suchmoney building a fleet, for manning whicl we
have no immediate or prospective provision,