The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-07-13 00:00:00

h is that which y-oi

property, anti winen i ueuiny Lament. a _
having joined your commission, for no opinion of its ultimate
security can justify the transaction.
"This proceeding is the chief obstacle to the fulfilment of the
only one of the requirements which it appears to me you ought
to entertain, even if it had not been relinquished at an earlier
stage, when the bills were under the charge of your late chair-

"I believe the best course you can now pursue is
the resolution passed on the 28th ult., on insufficiet

every possible me

I am, dear sir, your faithful servant,

" P.S.—Mr. Bryans and I have just had an interview with the
Board of Woods, which he will detail the particulars of.
"To the Dock Commissioners, Birkenhead."

THE REGISTERED PALETOT CASI

the Vice-

July 13,1847.

POSITION OF THE AUTHORITIES

IN BIRKENHEAD

The affairs of Birkenhead have latterly excited so much
attention, and yet their actual state is so little understood,
that the following may perhaps not be uninteresting to
some of our readers.

The commissioners of Birkenhead consist of twenty-one
persons, one-third of whom go out in rotation every three
years, when others are elected by the ratepayers.. They
have the entire management of the parks, ferries, mar-
kets, streets, sewerage, lights, &c., their powers being
much similar to those of municipal corporations. They
are, also, ex officio commissioners for the management of
the Birkenhead Harbour and Docks ; but all proceedings,
accounts, and monies of this trust, are kept quite sepa-
rate and distinct from those of the town. It would have

saved frequent mistakes had they been called Dock Trus-
tees, as their affairs from the similarity of the style are
frequently confounded. But, although they are the same.
individual persons, the two bodies are, in every point of
view, distinct and independent of eachother, so that, in
fact, there are in Birkenhead two public corporations, or,
more strictly speaking, two public companies.
There is also a private body, frequently taken for the
Birkenhead Dock Commissioners; but which is entirely
independent of either of the public trusts, this is the
Birkenhead Dock Company. It is a private company,.
having a nominal capital of one million, divided into
10,000 shares of £lOO each.

This explanation is requisite for the clear understanding
of the following statements. It was on the 19th of July,
1843, that the scheme of the docks was agreed upon at
the house of Mr. John Laird. He, as every body knows,
is an extensive iron shipbuilder, then holding land under
the Corporation of Liverpool, occupied by him as a build-
ing yard at Wallasey Pool. By the Liverpool papers of
this week, it appears to have been stated in the Town
Council, chat an application was made for an increased
quantity of laud, and an extension of the term of his
lease, two frigates having to be built there. 'However,
such a lease was granted to him, and also to others, who,
uniting their purchases or leases, came thus in possession
of the requisite space for the dock-works, which were
commenced by the Birkenhead Dock Commissioners in
October, 1844.

The estimated cost of the Docks and Harbour was
stated between £300,000 and £400,000, and the plan of
the then intended docks was given with the Standard of
the 14th November. Though materially altered since
that period, two large triangular pieces of land will vet
be formed by the sea walls, which will enclose an area on
^^-1- '4-3- of the pool, of about sixty or seventy acres.
would

the value a

defray the cost of constructing the Docks and Harbour.
In the words of an official document issued by the Com-
missioners, " the entire cost of the Docks, it is believed,
will not exceed £300,C00, as an offset to which an immense
quantity of valuable land will be reclaimed, which may
amount to more than the whole outlay." Upon these
statements_ aided I,s,

he money market

sums of money

_.ers were enabled to borrow large
„ and they proceeded with their works, hav-
ing to a parliamentary document, expended,
_zu Dec. last, £263,967 on the works. In addition to
this outlay, the Birkenhead Dock Commissioners have
lent to the Warehouse Company the sum of £50,000, and
to the Birkenhead Town Commissioners a similar sum.
A deviation from the plans originally submitted to Parlia-
ment, has been made, whereby £78,000 has been spent
"', present Morpeth Dock, opened recently by his
lamed so in compliment to him. With a
cralise this expenditure, and to obtain powers to

on the 31

lordship, and
view to 1

make further alterations from the original scheme, bills
are now before the Lords ; but although they passed the
Commons without opposition, and even the committee of
the upper house, they are now most violently opposed.
The crown appears to have claimed possession of the
strand of the Mersey, which is now claimed by the owners
of several frontages on Wallasey Pool; by Mr. Price, of

Liverpool ; and by the Corporation of Liverpool, who
bought a portion of Mr. Price's property therein„ These
parties are all movers against the right of the crown, in
which, incredible as it may appear, they are joined by the
Birkenhead Warehouse Company ; and they have been.
lo far successful as to induce the Lords to insert a few
ords, which entirely open the question of the
Ind instead of the broad assertion, " Whereas,
^no.sed, &c.," the paragraph stands thus,
to bt reassessed. In this position, the
nan
Commissioners of Wot ^nd Forests refuse their con-

is, or c

us to be,

t to the bill, unl

given for the cuter dock works being completed in
three years, and for suspending the works until the re-
improperly loaned by the commis-

funding of the mor
sioners. With the

!se condition.

allaby and

honest com-

can comply