Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-04-09 00:00:00

CHARGES FOR WATER,

TOWNSHIP WORKS

A House-
Assessed Water per An.
At £l5 per An £0 13 0
„ 30 ~
~ 30 to £6O per An 2 2 (

COMPANY'S WORKS,

Rouse
Assessed

~ 60 to ElOO „ ... 3 0 0

At £l5 per An.

„ Above £lOO 4 0 C

Thus, on the one hand, the
utterly discredited by the it

Charge for
Water per An.
£1 2 g
2 4 6
2 18 6
3 12 6
4 5 6
4 18 6

) 70 II
80 „
20 ~

5 11 0
6 3 0
100 „
„ Above £lOO per An
According to the
Company's Scale.

ire never was a scheme more
'competence of its advocates

than is this private company's—while, on the other, there
never was a scheme more thoroughly justified by reason,
justice, truth, and humanity, than in the case of the town-
ship arising out of the Local Government Act. To suppose
that, because the House of Commons passed the company's
bill, the township's position must be wrong, is a most super-
fluous conclusion. It is known that Mr. lope Scott repre-
sented, at the last moment, in the absence of Mr. Calvert,
that the Local Act did not give the power to supply the
township with water. Had Mr. Calvert been there,
he would have contradicted it, and Mr. Calvert is an autho-
rity quite equal to Mr. Hope Scott. Mr. Calvert has since
contradicted it. Besides, the Secretary of State, in that
most satisfactory and conclusive letter, which has been
published, declares we have the water supply power,
and that the clause relied on as limiting it, is, in reality,
ex extension of the power. While to remove all possible
doubt, the Secretary of State, adds a list of more than sixty
places, which are actually at this moment supplying them-
selves with water under the act. If this be not sufficient
to satisfy us on this point, it. Is difficult to say, what proof
people will require. For to doubt more, is equal to saying
that what is competent to supply any and every other place
in the Kingdom with water, is utterly powerless to enable
Tranmere to obtain a single drop.

The unscrupulous opponents Of the Local Act represent
that it will entail heavy burdens on the township. Well,
the board will be appointed by yourselves, not by the
government, or any outside power. If you appoint sensible
men, and men who have property in the township, what
earthly reason can there be for fearing extravagance or
burdens. The township may be as much injured by parsi-
mony as by extravagance. At the vestry meeting, last
week, there were great boastings of economy ; and there
might well be little cost, when large masses of property
were allowed, not only to drain their pigstyes and cesspools
through open ditches all along the main road of the township,
but when those ditches were allowed to remain stoppedup, and
the festering contents to poison the atmosphere all around.
On that road, at each point of human habitations,—the
very places where them should be cleanliness and purity,—
for the last three months the most deadly stenches have
been steaming out. In a block of houses in Paul's Road,
at this moment, the water in the well is poisoned from the
oosings of the cesspools around it; a little cement would
surely stop this horror, but according to these gentlemen,
that would be extravagance. Before there were any
boastings of economy, it should have been ascertained
how many of the poor had sickened and perished from
the poisoned atmosphere, and the poisoned water, and we
should then be able to strike the balanee, and see what is
the actual profit and loss of our economy. In America, a
black man, as a chattel, will fetch from £2OO to £4OO, and
surely Englishmen are worth as much as Africans. And if
that be so in Tranmere, would not even our money
gains be small, if set against our losses by sickness
and death. And it is clear that while we may injure the
township by excessive rates on the one hand, we may still
more injure it on the other by making it unsightly and
unhealthy ; and the Local Government Act would enable
us to do all things necessary for our comfort, health, and
life, by the funds which it will place at our disposal, from
the water works, if wisely managed; and all direct taxation
for sanitary works would be unnecessary. Sewers, baths
(without which it is impossible for any community to be
healthy), wash-houses, and possibly a park, even may by
careful management be secured. If the scoffing at the latter
may be justified by the result; if Tranmere, notwithstand-
ing her present open spaces, which might be secured almost
for the price of an old song, grows up as closely packed as
Liverpool, without a lung to breathe by—if this happens,
it will prove not that a park is unattainable (for
Birkenhead had not a larger population, nor a higher
rateable value, when she secured her park, than Tranmere
now has), but simply that, for want of a properly consti-
tuted governing body, Tranmere has given no opportunity
to the thoughtful and prescient minds of her community,
to develop her resources, and build up her interest. "What
is wanted, is simply a public board, around which the intel-
ligence and patriotism of the Township may gather, and
the sweeping away of the mockeries that now pretend to
guide and guard us. What is the use of water with nothing
to store it in but a hole, into which your cesspools and pig-
styes drain ? Tranmere wants almost everything necessary
to a good sanatory condition. And the local act will enable
you to do whatever is wanted ; and, if it do not, the rate-
payers will have themselves alone to blame, for, whoever
constitutes the board. the ratepayers will send them in.
Our opponents know that these objections have no reality,
much less force ; for they—their leading men, to a man
have already adopted the act in Rock Ferry. There it will
not interfere with their 'Water Works. In Tranmere they
oppose it, because there it will. What can more conclusively
demonstrate the selfishness of their opposition than this
simple fact ?
One thing only remains. We are charged with factiousness,
by not adopting the Local Act before the company launched
their scheme. Why, the Act only came into existence last
September, and, ere February was out, we were moving to
adopt it. Before taking a great step like that— determining
on the township's form of government,—will any man say
that six months was too long to deliberate ? The fact
is, that it is the company who are chargeable with some-
thing more than factiousness. Have they not endeavoured
to anticipate and to prevent us taking up our Parliamentary
rights. If they have lost money in useless Parliamentary
struggles, is it not their own fault ? 'Who will pay us the
money, and the time and labour we have been compelled to
expend to defeat their scheme? Did not the township assemble,
by-their own invitation, to consider their bill? and was not the
conclusion a request, not that they should abandon their
tilleh bill,
butthe
but that they would simply suspend their operations Local
Govern-
township had said "Aye or
aNtt
bytiafaultm blame
the
u
they
yt
lAct.ese t
hlefi
r theymo did not, owt,hios is
and surely they will richly deserve their losses. By
inducing, the overseers not to call our meeting they lost us a
month ; by demanding a poll they lost us another month ;
but after all, they will not succeed in carrying their scheme.
They will succeed in destroying their own characters for
public spirit, and public honesty, and usefulness—and in
begetting a feeling of mistrust and bitterness against
themselves, that for years will not subside. The parlia-
mentary tide has suddenly gone out, and left them
helpless—high and dry upon the beach. And, now, if it
were possible for them to obtain their act, not one half
the people would take their water—they would do
without it rather than take it from them. So that it
would be a barren victory, even if they could win it. It
would be

.. Like as a town that's won by fire
So won—so lost."

such a
But if the township
even,i.si
ignominious
ntol
nies i
impossible.
opiutossssodihwefitfioeer.a. interests,
just,wvictoryillb e andi: nv:
involved
legal—orlvuesdasittlhaatnto hand them over
simply is " Will we work and
vote, —or against our-
selves; to preserve our ownOauTr
choem.qpuaens
yt opponents oo;
there can be no doubt rights and properties—national,
speculators ?" And if there
be only the same sense and
any other Township in England,
what answer will be given to that
question on Tuesday next.—l am, Your obedient Servant,
Rock Ferry, April Bth, 1859. J. R. WILLIAMS.

BRIGHT 1 AND " THE " BUTTERMAN !

(Air-'

." Villikins and his Dinah.")

Oh ! 'tis of a famed merchant who in Liverpool do es dwell,
Who supply folks with Butter who want it to sell ;
His name it is Kelly, you scarce need be told,
Whose Butter is worth all your silver and gold.

Singin'•

P—Bater-li—Butter-ii-

Butter-li-,

As Kelly was weighing out Butter one day,
In walks REFORM BRIGHT, and to him did say,
Come leave your shop Kelly, and with me away,
And I'll find you a place with no work and good pay.
Singin'—Butter-li—Butter-li—Butter-li-day
Oh! no, my brave BRIGHT, that wont suit mymind,
" For to" cut my " old place" I do not feel inclined,
So to you the good pay
I will gladly make o'er,
To serve England with Butter a year or two more
Singint—JAuttcr-lx—Butter-1:
That's a good noble Kelly—then John Bright replied
You're a "Brick," my
"old buck," and not to be •
So, in order your Butter to put to the te,t.
Send me weekly, f" '-'-ward a ton df

—Butter-li-day,

:for
a'— Butte: