The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-04-10 00:00:00

REPORT.

The committee beg to lay before the members the
balance sheet of the Liverpool Freehold Land
Society, for the past year, which exhibits an amount
of £2,167 Is 91 received on account of subscriptions, and
£79 lOs 4d for fines, expenses, &c., which sums, added to
£1,707 17s 6d, the balance previously in the bank, and
£l7 9s 81 interest allowed by bank, make a total of
£3,971 19s 3d, out of which an instalment of £2,500 has
been paid towards the purchase money of the estate. The
balance at present in the bank to the credit of the society
is 41,183 lOs 2d. The next payment of 42,500 on account
of the estate will become due on the 26th inst., which,
when met, will reduce the balance of the purchase money
to 41,000. At the last annual meeting, your committee
were authorised to negotiate a loan for the payment of the
balance due on the estate. They entered into some nego-
ciations with a view to that end, but on further consider-
ing the position of the, society, and the short time that it
would take to redeem the whole estate out of the regular
subscriptions, they thought it best to endeavour to
effect a different arrangement, namely, to induce the
mortgagee to be content with the security of half
of the estate only, for the small balance remaining due
to him, and to convey half the lots to the society, at the
selection of the committee, without any additional pay•
ment. This arrangement your committee thought would
enable them to give the deeds to those members who were
ready to take them up by paying for their lots in full,
without burdening the members, who wished to continue
their ordinary rate of subscriptions, with any increase of
interest. They are glad to say that they have succeeded
in effecting:this object, and the re-conveyance of the lots
selected will shortly be executed. In pursuance of this
arrangement, your committee, in the month of December
last, announced to the members, by circular, that they
were prepared to offer their deeds to all these members
(to the extent of the holders of not more than half the
lots on the estate) who were prepared to take them up.
Not more than fifty-one members, holding 172 lots, have
sent in notice of their intention to avail themselves of
this advantage. The conveyances to these members are
now in course of preparation, and will be in their hands
in a few days. From the money that will be payable to
the society from the completion of these conveyances,
together with the balance now in the bank, your com-
mittee hope to be able to meet the next payment on
account of the purchase money of the estate on the 26th
instant. For the purpose of the completion of the
conveyances of these lots, it has become necessary
to calculate the total expense of the estate, and
to estimate all the further expenses not yet incurred.
To do this it would hare been necessary, according
to the original design of the society, to allow
for the sewerage of the estate. Your committee, however,
were advised by their surveyor that, owing to the want
of an outfall for the sewage, it would be impracticable to
sewer the estate according to the original intention, until
a main sewer was constructed along the Prescot road.
This could not be done until the General Health Act
should be adopted in West Derby, a matter over which
your committee have, of course, no control ; and as that
act gives ample powers for sewering, and for division of
the expenses for so doing, yonr committee deemed it un-
necessary to collect the amount necessary for that purpose
by anticipation, but recommended the allottees to accept
their lots unsewered and to rely on the powers of the
General Health Act for procuring the sewerage of the
estate when practicable. The consent of the allottees to this
course has enabled your committee to calculate the price of
lots, which is found to amount to 4s 2d per yard for
all lots, except those front and back lots, which; by the
conditions of the allotment, are to be taken at a greater
or less price than the average. Your committee, there-
fore, can now congratulate the members on having almost
arrived at the final winding up of the purchase of the
important estate which they have undertaken. A pur-
chase of £14,000 has been no small matter to have been
undertaken and carried through so successfully by a
society of the description of ours. Inclusive of what has
been paid for interest, street making, &c., upwards of
£13,000 has actually been paid on account of the
estate, and, in a few days, such of the members as
have elected to do so, will have in their hands the
first title deeds issued by the society, which will be
the best evidence of its practical success. By the expe-
rience gained in working this purchase, you and your
committee have learnt much, and your committee would
urge you not to rest satisfied with what you have already
accomplished, but to use that knowledge and experience
to push on the operation of your society. In the purchase
of another estate you may expect to achieve not only the
same but a still greater success than you have already
accomplished. The experience you have acquired has
taught you that your present estate has been too large for
your numbers. An estate, which could afford allotments
to a third or half only of your subscribers, would have
been worked out in a third or half of the time; and two
or three such estates could have been worked out by this
time; and, by such a course, the more speedy accom.
plishment of the objects of the society would, in all pro-
bability, have increased the confidence of the public, and
caused more regular and steady additions to the number
of the members than we have hitherto had. Your com-
mittee, therefore, conclude their report by urging you,
individually and collectively, to use all your influence to
obtain an increase of members, with a view to extend
your operations to the purchase of other estates.