The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-29 00:00:00

2 were passed. Clauses 13 and 14 were as follOws.:—

XIII.-:--And whereas the freo use of and access to the
Woodside ferry, pier, and slips at Birkenhead will be taken
away or impeded by the construction of the sea wail, and the
enclosura.of part of the Woodside basin, as hereby authorised
—therefore the corporation may and shall appropriate and set
apart for the accommodation of the traffic, and for the general
purposes of the said ferry exclusively, and without receiving
any payment for the same, any portion of the landing stage
hereby authorised to be construntf,d at Woodside aforesaid, not
being greater than two hundred feet, nor less than one hundred
and fifty feet in length from the southern extremity thereof,
and such portion when so appropriated shall thenceforward be
under the controul and management in all things of the Birken-
head Improvement Commissioners, or other the persons who
for the time being shall bo the owners of the said ferry, in
substitution for the existing pier and slips at Woodside belong-
hag to the said commissioners; and the remaining portion of
such landing stage shall be appropriated to the exclusive use of
steam vessels plying beyond the limits of the port of Liverpool.
XIV.—It shall be lawful for the corporation to borrow and
take up at interest on their bonds, in addition to the sum of
five hundred thousand pounds authorised by " The Birkenhead
Docks Act, 1855," such farther sum or sums of money
as they may think necessary, not exceeding the
sum of one million three hundred thousand pounds.
to be applied for the purposes of this act, and towards making
completing and bringing into full operation the Birkenhead
docks ; and such bonds shall entitle the holders thereof res-
p?ctively to such rights and remedies for the principal sums
and interest thereby respectively secured, and shall b
enforceable against the corporation in like manner in all res-
pects as if those bonds were duly given by them for securing
the payment of expenses necessarily incurred by them in
executing, with respect to the boiough of Liverpool, the act
of the session of the fifth and sixth years of King William the
Fourth, for the regulation of municipal corporations in England

and Wales, and the principal sums and interest secured bysuch
bonds shall be payable out of the borough fund of the borough
of Liverpool accordingly.
These clauses were agreed to.
The remaining clauses were confirmed without discus-
sion.

THE BIRKENHEAD DOCKS (MANAGEMENT).
This, which is a bill for carryinrc into effect certain
provisions of " The Birkenhead Docks Act, 1855, re-
lating- to the management of the Birkenhead Docks ; and
for other purposes, was then proceeded with. It con-
tains 86 clauses, but most of them are re-enactments.
The preamble was as follows :
Whereas, by "The Birkenhead Docks Act, 1855," the
'undertakings and properties of the Birkenhead Dock Trustees
and Birkenhead Dock Company respectively were transferred
to and vested in the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of the
borough of Liverpool, in that act and herein called " The Cm-
potation," upon the several trusts and conditions, and to and
for the several uses and purposes upon, to, and for which the
the trustees and tho company respectively were theretofore
seised or possessed of, or entitled to the same respectively, and
subject to the several liabilities created by any of the acts of
parliament relating to those trustees and to that company
respectively, and were declared to be ono undertaking, to be
completed, repaired, and maintained by and at the expense of
the corporation :

And whereas by the seventeenth section of the same act,
after reciting the appointment and constitution of the " com-
mittee for the affairs of the estate of the trustees of the Liver-
pool docks," and that it was expedient that the undertaking of
the corporation under that act, so far as then completed and
adapted for the accommodation of shipping, and so from time to
time as and when further portions thereof should be so completed
and adapted, should be managed by the said committee : it was
enacted that so much and such parts of the undertaking by the
said last mentioned act vested in the corporation, as were then
completed, or as might be thereafter completed, should, as and
when the same were adapted to the accommodation of shipping,
be managed by the said committee, who should have and
exorcise all such rights, powers, and authorities in relation
thereto as if the same undertaking were vested in the trustees
of the Liverpool docks, under or by virtue of any of the acts
relating to those trustees, and formed a part of their estate ;
and• by the twenty-second section of the same act it was enacted
that from and after the commencement of that act, and until
parliament should otherwise provide all the powers anis pro
visions of the therein recited acts respectively, with respect to
the management of the undertaking, which by the act now in
recital was vested in the corporation, and with respect to the
levying of tolls and dues, and with respect to the appointment
and payment of officers for the management and working of the
undertakings, and with respect to the ranking of regulations for
the use and preservation of the works of the undertakings; and
the protection of property in or upen'the same, and with respect
to the making of byolaws, and all the rights and authorities of
the Birkenhead dock trustees, and of the Birkenhead Dock
Company respectively, incidental to and consequent on such
powers and provisions respectively, should apply to the under_
taking of, and should !so exerciseable and might be had and
enjoyed by the said committee of the Liverpsol docks, as if
the same respectively had originally been conferred on and
made applicable to the trustees of the Liverpool docks and their
undertaking respectively ; provided nevertheless, that all
liabilities imposed upon the Birkenhead dock trustees, and the
Birkenhead Dock Company, by the said therein recited acts
respectively, with reference to any of the matters aforesaid,
should apply to and be enforceable against the corporation :
And whereas these objects will be more effectually accom
plished by vesting the management of the said undertaking in
the Liverpool dock trustees:
The acts to be repeated were here enumerated, and the
preamble then continued s s s

- And whereas it was declared by " the Birkenhead docks
act, 1855," that it was expedient that the same rates, dues, and'
charges should be levied in respect of the Wrkenhead docks as
then were or might thereafter be levied in respect of the
Liverpool docks, and that all the said docks should be placed
permanently under the same control and management :
And whereas it is expedient that the Corporation be empow-
ered to carry into effect the terms of such declaration, and to
borrow further and other sums of money, and that further
powers should he granted in relation to the Birkenhead docks,
and that the time limited for the completion thereof should be
tleended ; but the several ohjoc* aforesaid cannot be effected
without the aid of Parliament.

The Town Clerk, before reading the preamble,
ov,served that the bill ran to a considerable length. in
consequence of one of its provisions repealing all the
present acts relating to the Birkenhead dock trustees and
Birkenhead Dock Company. In repealing those acts of
parliament, it was necessary to continue several of the
powers eon'ained in them, and that accounted for the
leng.h of the bill itself. It was not to be supposed that
all that was contained in it was new matter; it was, in
fact, merely a reenactment of such of the provisions of
existing acts as were proposed to be repealed, and as
were necessary to be continued. He then read the
preamble.

Mr. John Stewart moved that it be adopted.
Mr. Charles Turner seconded it,
Mr. Picton said that before
the preamble was passed,
he should like the council to have a distinct understand-
ing on a very important subject,pa involved,m as he thought,
in the bill—he alluded to the ?ft
lof parochial rates
by the dock estate of Birkenheayd, lae,understood the
bill rightly, it repealed all the present
and that
the (state of Birkenhead was hitherto managed,'s under
which
all the statute law relating to it would be embodied in
this bill, He believed he was right in that view ;
the town clerk would correct him.if not
The Town Clerk intimated that Mr. Picton was correct.
Mr. Picton continued : —That being the case, he shoulti
like the council to have a distinct understanding how Li e
rating of these docks for parochial purposes would be af-
fected by the bill, whether it was proposed to place them
precisely in the same position as the docks on the !Arica.
shire side of the Mersey, and which they knew enjoyed an
exemption from the payment of all parochial rates ? Whe-
ther that exemption was legal or not he would not take upon
himself to say, but practically the Liverpool Docks did
enjoy it. Such, however, was not the case with the
docks at Birkenhead. Some time ago a case in reference