The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-05-14 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIIEF.!.i

Mr. Jeffery exhibited the plans contained in the report of the
town improvement committee, appointed at the town's meeting,
in illustration of his previous statements, and then continued :
—I would first, then, put this matter to the Council ; and, as
a burgess deeply interested in the management of the corporate
estate, I would say that, until the corporation had determined
which of those lines of improvement they would adopt, and
how much of the land now in their possession would be
requisite for carrying out the plan, no consideration, in respect
of its disposal, should occupy their minds. (Hear, hear.) After
they had determined on the line of improvement, then the land
lying between such line and the railway might be put up to
public auction, on leases of seventy-five years, and the public
would thus be afforded the same opportunity of buying it in
open market as any company. But it is said that railway
companies cannot hold land, except in fee, or in perpetuity, in
some terms. Now, I have been told by a gentleman who has
obtained an opinion on the subject, from an eminent lawyer,
that there is no law which can prevent a railway company from
holding laud, on a lease of seventy-five years. (Hear, hear.)
Now, if that information be correct, and I have no doubt it
is, the argument in that respect goes to the wind. But really
one would be almost led to suppose that the corporation were
not sincere in their efforts to dispose of the land, in the first
instance, when it was considered that they put it up in mass, at
public auction, on a lease of seventy-five years, at a time when,
as Mr. Robertson Gladstone had stated in the Town Council,
money was worth from seven to ten and twelve per cent. per
annum ; and now they brought forward the fact of there being
no bidders at that sale for such a large plot of laud, as a reason
why they should avail themselVes of the first offer that is
presented for the purchase of it on any terms. I am
really at a loss to know why a piece of land, of
such magnitude and value, should have to go a begging for a
purchaser; but, as I before said, it is the duty of the Council to
determine on the improvements to be carried out in that
nr ighbottrhood before they snake any attempt to part with the
property. If that be not done, we shall have repeated that
which happened in the case of Hardman-street. If the land
be now sold to the railway company, the corporation, bye-and-
bye, when they will be imparatively required to carry out the
contemplated improvement,—after some mayor's carriage has
been smashed in the street, or some mayor's neck broken,
(laughter),—will have to buy a portion of the land hack again,
and will have to give for that position more than the company
paid for the entirety. Not many years ago the corporation
purchased one side of Hardman-street. They widened the
street, an•l sold the surplus land; but very soon it was seen
that the street had not been widened sufficiently, and then they
had to re-purchase the land to do that which they should at first
have seen was necessary. Again, take the instance of the
Arcade. No street in the town requires widening more than
Bold-street, and the Arcade, which runs almost parallel to it,
would afford just the requisite space. It was offered by the
corporation for a comparatively small sum, because it now
pays an interest on that purchase-money of 72 per cent.,
though no money has scarcely been laid out on it, and the offer
was refused. In the bringing forward of this sale, then, the
finance committee are not to be considered incapable of com-
mitting a blunder, and their recommendation should not be
carried out, simply because it comes from them. If it should
be, then the Council becomes a nonentity—the bringing forward
of any recommendation by the committee is a mere matter-of-
form, and representative government becomes a farce. I hope
we will never live to see the day when our municipal govern-
ment will have come to that pass. (Hear, hear). In conclusion,
Mr. Jeffery proposed the following

MEMORIAL.

TO THE 'WORSHIPFUL THE MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL OF

LxvintkooL,

The Memorial of the undersign 4 Purgesses of Liverpool
respectfully showeth,
That the land in Great Howard-street, forming the site
of the Borough Gaol, is exceedingly valttable for purposes
connected with the improvement of the town and port, and
is now available for any one of the three amended lines of
approach, as laid down in a plan which accompanied the
report of a committee appointed at a town's meeting held
in 1453. Such amended lines were intended to relieve the
much over-crowded, and, therefore, dangerous, traffic
passing through Oldhall-street. One of them emanated
from, and was recommended to the Council for adoption
by, a committee of your own body. A second originated
with, and was recommended for adoption by, the Archi-
tectural Society; and a third was projected and recom-
mended for adoption by the town improvement commit tee,
all of which will be rendered impracticable by the sale of
that land now contemplated, and such much-needed relief,
therefore, indefinitely postponed.

That, in the opinion of competent judges, the terms on
which the finance committee recommend the sale of this
laud to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company
are very much below its present and prospective value.
That to alienate land so situated, and so certain to
increase in value, and that, too, not for a certain sum to
be paid down, but for a fixed annual rent perpetuity,
instead of on a lease for years, renewable on payment of
reasonable and proper fines, thus depriving the corpora-
tion estate for ever, of all prospect of advantage from its
probable increase in value, is to deal with public property
in a m ►nner in which not one member of your body would
A.. 1 with his own, and that SO entire a change in the
system of disposing of corporate property ought not to be
introduced without the fullest deliberation.

That your memorialists have seen, with surprise and
concern, that a majority of your body seems disposed to
hurry on the completion of this arrangement without
affording adequate time for enquiry and consideration.
That the reason assigned for this precipitation, viz. :
The risk that the railway company may be disposed to
declare off in case of delay, seems puerile in the last
degree, since it is not customary for men who have suc-
ceeded in arranging the preliminaries for a most excellent
bargain to be so exceedingly punctilious in insisting in
their prompt fulfilment.

Your memorialists, therefore, request that you will ad-
journ the further consideration of the proposed sale of
corporation property to the Lancashire Railway Company,
at least until the next monthly meeting of the Council, in
order to afford your constituents generally an opportunity
of considering a matter of such importance to the present
and future interests of the Borough, and of forming and
expressing a deliberate opinion upon it, before any
arrangement is finally made by their representatives.
Mr. Avison seconded the motion. He observed that Mr.
Jeffery had so fully entered into the question, that very little
remained for him to say. He was glad, indeed, that the meet.
ing had been convened, because he thought that the question
involved was one which ought to be sifted, and to which
every consideration ought to be given. Having been once a
working member of the Town Council, he knew of one evil
in the way matters were hurried forward at the last day, on
the pretence that if the matter were not immediately con-
cluded, the parties who were in treaty would break off. He
did not think that the company were at all likely to go off.
It was too good a bargain for them, for he did not see that
they could obtain any other land in the neighbourhood upon
the same terms. (Hear, hear.) A great portion of the land
belonged to Lord Derby, and his lordship, it was well known,
never granted a lease beyond one for seventy five years, and
he should like to consider what answer the company would
receive from his lordship if they demanded from
him a lease in perpetuity. Mr. John Shaw Leigh was
also a large proprietor in the neighbourhood, and it
was not likely that he either would grant a lease in
perpetuity. It might be bold in persons so little conversant
with land to give an opinion in regard to the price offered in
that instance, more particularly whore they knew that such a
gentleman as the mayor—than whom no one in Liverpool
was more conversant with the value of land —had endorsed the
bargain with his sanction, and stated that ho considered it a
good and prudent one ; and, furthermore, when they recollected
that that opinion was confirmed by Mr. Samuel Holmes ; but,
nevertheless, he should express a decided difference from the
opinions pronounced by those gentlemen. The price offered
in this instance was scarcely £3 a square yard.
Mr. Jeffery : It is less than that.

Mr. Avison : And yet land sold in the neighbourhood of
Hurst street, and in that looality, for five guineas a square
yard. Some of it sold even higher, and even at that price be
might mention that the terms wore a seventy-five years'
lease. With regard to the proposition of granting a
lease in perpetuity, he should confess that, as an
individual, he had a strong objection to such a
proceeding. Ho thought the corporation had established a
wholesome system of letting their land, under a lease of 75
years, a plan which was adopted many years ago, after great
consideration had been given to the matter. Before that they
were in the habit of granting leases for three, five, and twenty-
one years ; but it was considered, and wisely, he thought,
more satisfactory to adopt a lease of 75 years. As to the
argument, that the railway company could not hold land,
unless in perpetuity, he was not aware that there was any law
that bound them in that respect, and he was very much
mistaken, indeed, if the London and North Western Railway
Company did not hold property in Liverpool, in the term of a
75 years' lease. He thought that, on investigation, it would
turn out to be so. Now, with regard to the propriety of
selling the land at all, he remembered that he had been a
member of the improvement committee, and that it had
always been held forth, that when that property
came into the hands of the corporation, it
would be devoted to the purposes of improvement. (II ar,
hear.) Now, the time might not have arrived to make the
improvements recommended by the town improvement com-
mittee—it might be premature to do so, but ho did not see
why the corporation should not make preparations for effecting
them at a future time. (Hear, hear) If the land were sold,
the next thing they would hear of was, that the corporation
would have to make those improvements, and then the corpo-
ration would have to purchase, at a very high figure, from the
company, part of the very same land they now disposed of, in
order to effect those improvements. It had bean said that when
the property was offered fbr sale no bid was made for it ; but
they should remember that it was a very large plot of land
indeed, and that no single person would be willing to invest in
it as an entirety. Ho should wish that the corporation would
divide the land into lots, and get their surveyor to lay it out,
and then to offer it for sale. He had no doubt if that
were done, they would find plenty of purchasers who would
give full and satisfactory prices for the land. Ho did not see,
also, why the corporation should be so inclined to favour the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. He recol-
lected that when another public company, the London and
Liverpool Fire and Life Insurance Company, wished to buy
the freehold of certain property in the neighbourhood of the
Town Hall, the corporation refused to part with their land
on any other terms than on a lease, and, he thought, very
properly too. He did not see why the Council should depart
from that principle in this instance. In conclusion, Mr.
Avison expressed his strong conviction that the Mayor and