Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-11-04 00:00:00

16m, ,the matter will be

,nding- stage

.ture in connex-

former. may be, I conceive it

be a dangerous policy to allow any partiei to
towards the cost of tlyi alterations in the

)ort indicates, font must either give those.

vested right to the use of ti

hdraliing, the consid.

ion, if required, to
for the sake of explana-

y go: elsewhere;

for to-Mv mind this

atest ob'

I hve. to the

•oposal, I will su.

three o

passenger_ publi

to relieve the traff

of the already over-crowded traffic of
channel through which it now flows, by diverting the
L• A •

this narrow

pvilavu tn. it, w bone otner portion or our estate,
where equal, if not superior, facilities could be afforded;
then I say our.successors should have extreme difficulty
in dealing with the question, in consequence of the pro-
posed arrangement; and the contracting parties would
be justified in declining to move, so long as they ful.
filled their portion of the obligation, if these alterations
are absolutely xecessary to rectify the oversight of the
designers of the stage. I conceive it is our duty, and ours
only, if we mean to possess full control over the stage,
to make the alterations at the expense of the board
end I gieve that tu. to,rl nronosed 1

neut. AA, cne plan proposk by Mr. Hartley
is admirably adapted to effect the intended object, if
the. traffic of
_the stage demands an alteration.

Then, as re,

garde, the 'Woodside stage, we are told
that the works agreed to by the Commissioners, and
directed by Act of Parliament to be carried out, do
not ' afford all the needful facilities ; and keeping in
mind the desire of the board, set forth in the resolution
of the 7th April, I expect the board will meet the
wishes of the Commissioners, and co-operate, as far as
our interests will warrant, with them. But here again
I forward a couple of years, and believe that I am
justified in stating that when our Birkenhead dock is
occupied, mutual arrangements must be made for estab-
lishing a ferry intercourse on the lowest possible scale
of charges,.' which will run into the heart of our docks,
through the low• water basin, and this will be the time
and the direction in which this board may be fairly
called on to provide suitable facilities. The dock traffic
which this board has mainly to guard, must be
materially benefitted by the reduction of distance and
cost. But lam willing to, admit the alterations will be
of some benefit to the dock property, and would be
willing to adopt them, provided the commissioners would
undertake to defray the interest of the outlay, which
would be little or no more than what they are called on
to contribute under present proposals; and, as they
have a legal right to a portion of this stage, the objec-
tion of allowing them to contribute •to the general
alterations does not apply. .1 do not quite agree with
those gentlemen who desire to throw out the scheme
altogether ; but, on the other hand, I cannot vote for
the report, on the grounds I have stated. I have em-
bodied those views in a resolution, which I will venture
to submit, as an amendment, to ascertain the feeling
of the board, and if it should find favour, I suppose it
will find a seconder ; if not, it will prove a useless
endeavour to point out a middle, and, to my mind, an
infinitely safer course :
That the whole subject be referred back to the Committee of
Works for further consideration, generally ; but on the under-
standing that this board, apprehending that the proposed
transit of goods to Woodside will not in any degree equivalent
to the cost, be beneficial to the Birkenhead ,Dock Estate, are
not prepared to approve of any plan for snch transit which
shall not provide for the payment, by the Birkenhead Commis-
sioners, of at least interest of the whole of the proposed addi-
tional outlay for ferry purposes on that side of the river. On
the other hand, this board are of opinion that any alterations
which may, ultimately' be determined upon as necessary to
improve the present approaches to the North Landing-stage, on
the Liverpool side, ought to be undertaken at their oWn sole
expense.

The amendmeit was not seconded.
Mr. Touni said he had listened to Mr. Arnold with
great attention, as he always did, because that gentle-
man's remarks invariably contained so ,much good sense;
but he confessed that he entirely disagreed with those
gentlemen who opposed the resolution of the committee
because it did not quite provide for the dock traffic and
cargo traffic to both sides of 'the river. Mr. Maelver
had said, the other day, that. the whole of the stage
would be required for dock traffic purposes to Birken-
head ; but, after all, he found Mr..: Maclver rowing in
the same boat with those gentlemeh who had always
asserted that there would be no trade there.

Mt. MACIVER was not aware that he was rowing in
the, same boat with any party.
Mr. SMITH claimed the protection of the chairman.
for Mr. Tobin, as Mr Maclver was in the habit of in-
terrupting every &entlemen who differed from his views.
• Mr TOBIN continued to say that the plan was never
intended for the whole of the ',dock traffic for the, two
sides of, the river ; for, as Mr. MaCrver had said, it could
be carried much more economically by barges. But'
there were also small stores for ships lying at the
other side, such as copper for sheathing, copper nails,
sails, cordage, provisions, and things of that nature,
which, though small in themselves, were of much con-
sequence, and could be conveyed much cheaper than by
the present mode; •and, if they had a large trade there,
these things alone would make a considerable traffic of
themselves. He believed, with Mr. Graves, that it would
be more desirable to have the scheme carried out on a
large scale ; but the present one, 'if carried out, could
not interfere with that on a future occasion. They had
a rise and fall in the tideeof thirty feet, and the difficulty
proper incline. He wouldmention that
_ _

was to get

the present bridges could not be used foie more than two
hours before and two hours after high water, and if
a cart crossed from this to the other side it would have
to remain there for six hours before it could return, with
the bridges in their present state. It had been said by
Mr. Inman that the present bridges were quite sufficient
for sea,going steamers ; but he believed it would be

beneficial to passengers arriving or departing by sea-
viag_ _steamers,
_when vehicles could come alongside.
He knew a lady who had to pay as much as Bs. to
have her luggage put on the cart from the .landin
stage, which was nearly- as much as the passage
from Ireland. to Liverpool, and. that .price was paid
according to the tariff. ,But the parties„who were ar-
guing against this scheme must be very deficient in
memory, for two years ago they had written a letter
askinglor what they now opposed.. The letter came
from the Steam-ship Association, and he would read it
as follows :

Liverpool Steaa-sliip Association,
Adelaide-builclinp, 4, Chapel-street,
Liverpool, 25th August, 1857.

lm directed by the Liverpool Steam• ship Association
v to request that the attention of the Town Council
flied' to the bridges, designekl to connect the New

g-stage with the PrinCe's ilerhead, previously to the
stage being taken off the contractor's hands and opened for
tNitic. In doing so, lam desired to observe that the stage is

iseful, at low water, when

steam vesii
side the riv