The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-28 00:00:00

LOCAL SHIPPING DUES BILL.

A mecting was held at Manchester, in the Mayor's
Palour, Town-hall, yesterday, of the supporters of
Mr. Lowe's late bill for abolishing local dues on ship-
ping, in order to organise at association to continue the
agitation of this question, and "to obtain tho right ap-
propriation of the Liverpool town dues." The meeting
was numerous, and exceedingly influential.
Mr. Thomas Bazley, President of the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce, presided in the absence of the
Mayor, and there were present Mr. Heelis, Mayor of
Salford ; Mr. Buckley, Mayor of Ashton ; Mr. J. Ker-
shaw, M.P., Sir J. Potter, Mr. W. Neild, Mr. W. R.
Callender, Mr. I. Mackicf Mr. J. A. Turner (president
of the Manchester Commercial Association), Mr. M.
Ross, Mr. W. Reyner Wood, Mr. Alderman Shuttle-
worth, Mr. H. Ashworth, Mr. T. Fairbairn, Mr. J. E.
Taylor, and Mr. Mason of Ashton.
The CHAIIIIIAN, in opening the business, said the col-
lectors of town dues in various ports of the kingdom
were determined to appropriate for private municipal
purposes taxes they gathered from public sources. The
Government of the country had wisely brought in a mea-
sure to put an end to this unjust misappropriation of
funds; but be regretted that the Administration bad
shown a want of administrative courage—(hear, hear)—
and had withdrawn their bill. He was afraid tbere had
been something like fickleness on the part of the Go-
vernment, and the time had now arriyed when they must
themselves, in these manufacturing districts, take up
the question more energetically than they had yet done.
He beped the organisation now about to be called into
eistence would take up the question with the earnest.
ness it deserved ; and he trusted -that funds collected
for public purposes would, as the result, be compelled to
be applied for public convenience and in furtherance of
public objects only. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. W. R. WOOD said the grievance they sought to
remove was a sort of relic of old times, of a state of
things that was passing away, and mast yield before the
know,ledge and intelligence of the day, when the misap-
propriation of public taxes of any kind could be endured
in the open manner now practised to. Liverpool. Those
who bad ascended the Rhine found its waters crowded
with traffic, while the remnants of feudal times existed
only on its banks in the form of picturesque ruins, and
he saw no reason why the waters of the Mersey should
not be as free as those of the Rhine. He did not com-
pare the Liverpool town dues to the scenes of war and
rapine once pursued en the banks of the Rhine ; but the
exaction of town dues and passing tolls were remnants
of the same system, and were equally obstacles to that
trade and commerce which could only flourish as it ought
where there was the utmost freedom. We had been
contending in the north of Europe and at the Confer.
ences of Paris for the free navigation of the Danube,
and he should like to know why the corporation of Liver.
pool should be entitled to do on the Mersey what other
countries were not allowed to do on the Danube. The
jbstice of their cause must insure its success, and he
would move,—

" That this meeting has learnt with regret the with-
drawal by her Majesty's Government of the bill introduced
into the House of Commons, entitled ' A Bill'for the Abo-
lition of Passing Tolls, and for the regulation of Local
Dues on Shipping,' being fully impressed with the belief
that, had Government persevered with that measure, the
just principles therein embodied would have commanded
the support of a majority of the House of Commons, as well
as the approbation of a large class of her Majesty's subjects.
That this meeting is of opinion that the injustice inflicted
upon this district, as well by the exaction of the Liver-
pool local dues as by the purposes to which they are ap-
propriated, and the growing importance of the principles
inTolVed in their continuance, call for a Opecial effort on

the part of this district in support of her Majesty's Govern-
ment, in order to insure the speedy adoption by Parlia-
ment of a bill.for carrying into effect the recommendation
of her Majesty's Shipping Dues Commission."
Mr. MesoN, of Ashton, seconded the resolution, and
it was agreed to.
Mr. T. FAIRBAIRN moved, and Mr. J. A. TURNER se-
conded, the following resolution, which was supported
by Mr. Hums, Mayor of Salford
"That this meeting is impressed with the valuable ser-
vices whichthe corporation of the city of Manchester has
rendered to the manufacturing district by its energetic op-
position to the levying of these (hies ; and, in recording
its obligations to that body for the activity and ability
which it has put forth on this question, that it is the duty
of the whole of the manufaCturing district energetically to
co-operate with the corporation of Manchester, in order to
secure with as little delay as possible the abolition or due
appropriation'of these unjust exactions."
Mr. M. Ross F aid he could not forbear, when he
heard Sir F. Thesiger's speech on the Local Dues Bill,
contrasting some of its arguments• with those of Sir C.
Wetherall's on the Reform Bill 25 years ago. Accord-
ing to bin), the fall of the vested interests of Gatton and
Old Sarulit simi'd be the de itruction of the constitution ;
and so, according to Sir Frederick, would be the right
appropriation of the Liverpool town due. (" Hear,"
and laughter.): Mr. Ross said that it must not be sup-
posed that Liverpool gentlemen were • all so blind as to
the jastice of this question, and he read the following
extract of' a letter from a Liverpool merchant on the
neglect of the Liverpool authorities of the'r duties and
the maladministration of their funds, as an instance
" That the corporation hive notappropriated thereceipts
from town dues or expended them in a way to promote the
facilities of shipping. That the Liverpool Town-clerk
distinctly wishes it to be impressed upon the public that
they are not called upon to do so. That, on the con-
trary, the Liverpool corporation have neglected to afford
facilities for shipping, and- protection to ships, which it
was their duty to provide as stated by Mr. S. Holme in the
loirmetriticit, irlltrWilialrebbiCtikiiidiftrtinder barge
of the corporation, is io a most disgraceful state of !ne-
glect, the sea penetrating into it, and the sand washed
away, threatening in a short time, if not immediately at-
tended to, to close up the most important channel to the
entrance of the river. That the corporation, who look
after the weights and scales of petty hucksters, and fine
scores of them weekly, provide no means for the correct
measurement of goods shipped abroad, the freight of
which by measure must amount to thousands of pounds
weekly, and is a subject of constant fraud and deception.
That traffic from the interior for goods shipped through
Liverpool do not use any streets except those on the mar-
gin of the quays ; and, in answer to Mr: ?foretell, it may
be shown that the corporation have preferred to widen
purely shop streets, and have refused wbon they had the
opportunity of widening those leading from the docks to
the centre of the wholesale trade. That an immense
amount of town dues is collected by no tariff, printed, cir-
culated, or known, but is left to the discretion of the
clerks receiving the same, who frequently differ in their
views ; apd this uncertainty of what has to be paid offers
temptation to pilfering on the part of young men, chiefly
apprentices, who pay those dues. That the Government
Customs' officers are the chief provedores of these dues, as
they refuse to pass an export entry until the payment of
town dues is marked upon it. That the revenue from dock
duos is amply sufficient to provide for the required facili-
ties and accommodation of commerce. That the arrange-
ments for paying dues at Liverpool is lumbering, cumber-
some, and unnecessarily expensive. There is a receiver of
town dues, with a staff of clerks, who must be furnished
with a copy of each entry on which is marked the town
dries paid. There is also a receiver of dock dues, with
a staff of clerks, which must also be furnished with
a copy of the entry in the same manner. The most
simple import or export entry has thus to be taken
to four persons for the local rates alone. That the en-
tries for payment of dues for a whole cargo, inwards
or outwards, might be passed in 10 minutes, and two
clerks would thus be able to do all the work con-
nected with the receipt of duos in a twentieth part of the
time at present occupied. But at present, if theio are 50
different interests on board a ship, they require 50 different
entries for town dues and 50 more for dook dues. For-
merly the shipbroker passed all these in one entry, and
charged each shipper his proportion when rendering the
freight bill. Every shipper or merchant, in his entries,
wishes to use terms as used in the Customs, dock, or town

dues tariffs (for all three are distinct and different) ; but,
in the Customs bill of entry for yesterday, taking one day
of small average business, I find, in oue day alone, the
following goods entered, for which there is no charge at •
tachod in the published tariff of town dues, excluding
what may come under the general term of 'dry goods.
Some of these articles may appear of small consequence,
i but are really not so. For instance, of nitrate of soda
1,203 bags are entered; and of bicarbonate of soda, 220
'kegs. Furniture, nitrate of soda, tin ore, Tonqnin beans,
tapioca, is'nglass, jalap, bleaching powder, muriates, prus-
siatos, hats, lead shot, kegs of nails, twine, paintings, ma-
chinery, saddlery, plated wars, • hollow ware, tin ware,
hardware, guns, hair seating, chains, gas fittings, anvils,
vices, blus', iuk, bicarbonate of soda, apothecaries' ware,
copper rollers, copper bottoms, fishing materials, printers'
and dyers' materials, varnish, fuze, flocks, vermillion,
seeds, anchors, earubooses, lead pipe, windlasses."
He proposed—.

" That an association, to be called ' An Association to
obtain tho right Appropriation of the Liverpool Town
Dues,' be now formed,. for Fite purposes mentioned in the
prece,ling resolnti6_l4,nd tiza_tAbe_Anpport of the leading
MiiiiractiirereKdd-tne*Riiiits this district, by stibseri.

tion and otherwise, be solicited. That Mr. at. Henry be
appointed president. Messrs. R. N. Philips, Thomas Raz-
ley, J. A. Turner, J. C. Harter, and Henry Houldswort
he the vice.prosidents; Mr. John Platt, the treasurer; and
that the following gentlemen form the committee of council
of the association, out of which 15 members shall be nomi-
nated by the president, to be called the executive commit-
tee, for the purpose of conducting the business of the asso-
ciation." (Here follow 82 nrmes of influential gentlemen
of the town and district.)
Mr. HENRY AINSWORTH seconded the resolution, and
contended that if Charles 11. had a right to deal with

these dues her Majesty Queen Victoria had an equal
right ; hut they were, in fact, opposed to the spirit of the
times, as weli as of the constitution, by which taxation
and representation went together, and no part of the com-
munity could have a right to levy taxes upon another,
and apply them to other purposes than those for which
they were raised.

Mr. HERON, Town-clerk of Manchester, in an able
speech, exposed the fallacious arguments and dishonest
st stements of Sir Frederick Thesiger in this sulj.-.ct in the
Hou4e of Crmmons, and by which the house was led to
believe that Liverpool gave 374,0001. for this right of
levying town dues, while, in reality, that payment was
for 1,300 manors, of which Liverpool was one, the value
of Liverpool being fixed soon afterwards by its resale fiir
7001. In the same dexterous way it was made to appear
that Bristol was in the Fame position ; hut, in fact,
Bristol had voluntarily reduced the 5,0001., dues raised
in this way by 2,000/. per annum, while she had got
PArliamentary powers, and had taxed her inhabitants to

the amount -of 10,0001. for the benefit of shipping.
(Qcar.) But what had Liverpool done ! They spent the
whole 150,000/. per annum raised as town dues upon
the town, and not on the docks, and raised besides
400,0001. a-year for the purpose of providing fur the
accommodation of shipping. (Haar.)
The resolution was carried, and the meeting separated,
after a vote of thanks to the chairman.