The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-16 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMF:.---LIVERPOOL, FRIDAY.

Rivington ditch water The Pikeists are endeav-
ouring to perpetrate a monster iniquity, and they may
well feel waspish at the pure and determined spirit
by which their opponents are actuated: We have
proved, from the writings of their own chemical
authorities, that the filth they want the town to
pay for—by way of consummating one of the
foulest Corporate jobs ever undertaken—is wholly
unfit for diatetic uses; and yet, they, persist, in
their attempts to force it down the publies'
throats ! The Liverpool Mercury was, at one time,
as strongly opposed to the Pike scheme as we
are to-day ; but it was openly bought by the
promoters of this detestible imposture, and
whatever intellect or public spirit our
coternporary possessed, went with its reputation
for good old English honesty and independence.
But if our neighbour likes the change, what have
we to do or to say to his wandering and relish for
trifles ? If he will have the Pike poison, we
only wish our warnings to be remembered,
and that the delights of 'rotten vegetable
and animal matter will be reserved for those
who like them, and can swallow ditch filth
by the peck when paid for it. Liverpool wants
none of the Pikeist's sickening and health-
destroying beverage ; and if the Editor of the
Mercury will drink water in which- it would
scaicdy be safe to wash his type, that is no
reason why a whole community should be sud
denly laid prostrate with cholera or lead-colic!

THE PIKE WATER.

TO JAMES HOLME, ESQ

Sir,—There was no necessity for your invoking
the Deity, as you did at the laat diseussion on the
Pike question, in the Town Council, to bear testi
mony to the purity of your motives and the good.
ness of your intentions in regard to the course you
have unfortunately taken in regard to the Riving-
ton Water Scheme. Who ever questioned either
the one or the other ? Assuredly I never did, and
if there was one man in Liverpool who had a right
to do so, it was myself, for you were influenced by
others to do me a grievous wrong. Yet, Sir, I
never, either publicly or privately, accused you of
acting froni other than patriotic motives; and when,
as you have often been in my presence, charged
with jobbing, and so forth, in regard to
this question—l have been the first to stand
up, and declare my own honest conviction, that—
in the course you thought proper to pursue, you,
although most grieviously deceived, were actuated
solely by a desire to serve the public. In fact, in
reality, who in Liverpool that knows you—and who
does not—could have any other opinion of you ?
You know, that when I have required a helping hand
you were the first man I appealed to, and never
in vain.. But you have been deceived; and, un•-
unfortunately,' your solid sense, great experience,
and sterling• honesty, have been the vety causes
why so many others—equally well intentioned
with yourself—have been led astray. It is impos-
sible for any one man to master, practically, all the
physical, much less the moral sciences- Hence
however eminent as a builder, a railway engin ser
or an architect, you deservedly are—yet a very
indifferent water engineer, as I shall endeavqur to
prove to you. In your famous speech on the
Pike question on Monday last, you are made to say,
that " The opponents of the scheme had been
guilty of uttering gross falsehoods in support of
their views " Now, sir, I will bring you to the
book; and when you have answered the few simple
questions which follow, I will frankly ask you,on
whose side has been the falsehood ?

Ist—You, and those who thought with yOu in
1847, assured the town—pledged your reputatipns,
in fact—that the local wells could not by any
possible means yield a larger supply of water than
they were then doing, viz., some 20,000 gallons per
week. And you endorsed the views of your
engineer, that even this limited quantity was fast
failing, and that by the present time the town
would be without a drop of water.
The opposition said—We believe the local wells
are capable of yielding a much larger quantity of
water, if properly treated ; we believe that there
is no reason to apprehend any falling off in the
yield. Well, sir, 1857 comes, and with it your
return of the water pumped from these wells ; from
it we learn that so far from there being a diminuition,
the yield has been more than doubled, without
any new sinkings whatever. Now, Sir, let me ask
you on which side has been the falsehood and
deception ?

2nd—ln 1847, your engineer promised that the
works would be fully completed in five years.—
The opposition said, No ; nor in double the time
This is 1857, and' the works are not nearly
completed yet. Who were the deceivers here ?
In 1847 your engineer estimated the total cost of
the works at £480,000, and you and other practical
men swore by the accuracy of his estimates. The
opposition said the cost will approximate nearer to
a million. 1857 has arrived, and, according to your
own showing, the money already expended is
£730,000, while a great deal more has yet to: be
paid. Who, I ask you, sir, were the parties guilty of
falsehood and deception here ? In 1847 you
subsidised all the so-called scientific quacks you
could find in the country to prove that the Pike
water would be the purest and the most potable
and palitable in • the world. To this view the
opposition demurred, declaring it to
,be. their
conviction that the wash of a highly cultivated
country, where artificial manures were extensively
used, impregnated by such wash, must necessarily
be with a vast mass of poisonous refuse from
chemical works, bleach works, print works, gas
works, and the sewage water of a dense
manufacturing population never could be a fit
substitute for the supply of pure spring water with
which the inhabitants of Liverpool were so
bountifully blessed. Well, Sir, 1857 comes, and
with it a sample of the Pike wash ; and what has
been the opinion of the whole town as to its
quality ? Why, that it is - execrable ; while
eminent chemists have positively demonstrated
that it is highly poisonous, and utterly unfit for
the supply of this or any other community.
Now, Sir, in the face of these astounding facts I
beg again :to ask the question, who have been
guilty of falsehood and deception ? the Pilke ad
vocates or its opponents? But you inform the
Council that when the Pilke is in full play that
the supply will be some 133,000,000 gallons per
week. Pray, may I ask you who is your authority
for this statement? for apparently it is not Mr.
Hawksley. All that eminent engineer ever pro-
mised you was only 8,000,000 gallons per diem
now, and another like instalment when •wanted.
Now, Sir, even the maximum, according to Cocker.
amounts only to 112,000 gallons per week, which I
sincerely wish you may get. In my last letter
to your chairman, I replied to your and his
fallacies about revenue; therefore, I shall not
trouble you on that point at present. I told you
at the beginning that you were a bad water en-
gineer, and your statements in the Council on
Montlay is my proof. The old adage, " that any
excuse-is better," &c., is exceedingly appropriate in
your case. You could not gainsay the fact as to
the abominable specimen of diluted Pike water
which had been for some days foisted on the town,
but you attempt to shift the blame to the pipes,
and you instance the case of Aigburth, where you
say that for three months after the pipes were
laid, the water was so foul and fce'id that it was
totally unfit for use. I was something more than
surprised to hear that you, a member of the Water
Committee, should have been led to make such
a statement. On this point I have some little
experience, having laid, or superintended the
laying, of upwards of twenty miles of iron
mains in Liverpool. I invariably found that after
the first clearance of the pipes no inconvenience
need arise from corrosion if due care be exercised
by the turncocks in drawing the plugs at those
points where sedimentary deposits are likely to
occur. If therefore, your water at Aigburth, was
in the condition you have described it to be, the
fault rested solely with your own servants, and for