Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-02 00:00:00

of the Water Committee and their unprincipled
agents. It is worse than useless for certain
members of the Council to attempt, by means of
cooked accounts and jesuitical sophistry, to
make it appear that the money so prodigally
squandered on this foul abortion does not amount
to more than one-half the sum stated by us.
However much those parties may presume on
the prestige of their position, or the success
which has hitherto attended their dictatorial
assumptions and unscrupulous assertions, we
beg to tell all such, and the Council at large, that
we do not indulge in hap-hazard statements on
this or any other such grave subject; and we
are prepared to prove by facts and figures which
shall challenge contradiction, that already the
actual expenditure on the Pike is in round
numbers One-and-a-half Million sterling, and
ere the works are finally completed, and all
claims liquidated, the gross expenditure will
exceed that sum considerably, brazen assertions
to the contrary notwithstanding.
The discussion on the proceedings of the
Water Committee's proceedings to-day, is
likely to open up the whole question, unless
indeed the other business before the Council
should be so protracted as to lead to an adjourn-
ment, ere the Water Committee's report is
brought forward, as has been unfortunately too
often the case before ; and while on this point,
we would beg to ask those who have the power
of arranging the order in which the various
Committee's proceedings shall be brought
before the Council, how it happens that one of
the most important Committees in the Council—
a Committee who have expended nearly Three
!Millions of Money on the purchase of old
works and the completion of new, who
have the disposal of a revenue fast approach-
ing 100,0001. per annum, and who are,
moreover, charged with the important trust
of furnishing the inhabitants of this important
town with an essential necessary to existence—
water—should have their proceedings brought
up at the tail of nearly all the others ; the result
being that, in almost every instance, these have
to be considered at an adjourned meeting.
No doubt this, like every other thing connected
with thz job, was an artful d.:dge to gain time
and weaken the opposition. Let some indepen-
dent member of the Council take the question
up, and endeavour to have the water procedings
brought forward immediately after those of
Finance have been disposed of. Assuredly the
numerous unimportant committees have no rig-ht
to take precedence of the Water in the manner
they do under existing arrangements. We
have already informed our readers that all the
efforts of that quack alchemist, the stipendiary
philosopher of the Town-hall, Mr. THOMAS
SPENCER, to purify the Pike water at
Rivington, have, like the job itself.
proved so many abortions. And that
Mr. DUNCAN declares that the only chance of
making the water at all passable is by the con-
struction of filtering apparatus at home. But,
with all due deference, we must remind Mr.
DUNCAN that his proposition is in itself merely
an experiment which may or may not prove
successful, and must involve a re-arrangement of
the entire system, involving certain serious cost
for questionable benefits. And we would again
earnestly call on every independent member of
the Council to resist every proposition to embark
in that or any other proposition, however specious
the arguments in its favour, which has for its
object the involving the town in further large
cost, and possible annoyance.
While according to our Water Engineer, Mr.
DUNCAN, credit for soundness of judgment and
purity of motives,. we are, on principle, com-
pelled to disagree in toto with his proposition
cf laying a second set of mains for the distribu-
tion of the well water, at the estimated cost of
200,000/., besides a large margin for extras, to
be borne by the water consumers ; and we
feel constrained to enter our solemn pro-
test against the adoption of that scheme
either in its entirety, or even in a modified form
until after the most careful deliberation.

For the last ten years the Water Committee
have been floundering about in a fog, totally
unconscious of •where they were or what they
were doing. That they have gone astray their
very best friends must admit, and their only
chance of extricating themselves is by retracing
their steps, now that a glimpse of sunshine has
broken in upon them, to the point from whence
they started: They must go back in fact to
the state of things as they found it in
1848. The film once removed from their
eyes—their minds uninfluenced by passion
or prejudice— and influenced by a
,sincere
desire to benefit that community which has
already suffered so severely from the misdirec-
tion of their efforts, they will throw all past
or personal considerations to the winds, and
apply themselves with the resolution of honest
and determined men, in order to retrieve the
fearful errors they have been instrumental in
committing. Ou this subject we have elicited
the views of persons thoroughly conversant with
the subject, and we are glad to find their opinions
in unison with our own; and we believe that
we do not err when we assert that the well
water, in ample quantity, may forthwith be made
available for the supply of the whole of the
inhabitants ; that, by certain simple, and by no
means costly modifications in the present
pipeage, arrangements may be speedily made
for the distribution of the Pike decoction for
such purposes as it is suited to. This must be
glad tidings alike to the Water Committee and the