The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-10-16 00:00:00

EVERTON AND KIRKDALE WARD.

A meeting of the burgesses of this ward was hell last
evening at the house of Mr. Hayes, Nag's Head, Nether-
field-road North. The object of this meeting was to
adopt measures calculated to secure the return of Thomas
Chalmers, junior, Esq., as their representative in the
Town Council. The meeting was respectably and nume-
rously attended. _ _ _ ._ _

Among the gentlemen present were Mr. Dewburst. Mr.
Lupton, Mr. Langsdale, Mr. Ewart, (the secretary,) Mr.
Pilcher, &c.
Mr. LANGSDALE was called to the chair. He
commenced the proceedings by saying that it was wellknown
that Mr. Chalmers was unanimously requested to stand
for the Everton and Kirkdale Ward. at a meeting held on
Wednesday evening last. It was not his intention to
eulogise the doctor; he was too well known amongst
them. He (the chairman) had known him many years,
and the result of that knowledge was to convince him of
Mr. Chalmers' ability for the honour intended him. What
they wanted was a man who would apply himself energe-
tically to the duties incumbent on the occupancy of a seat
in the Council. The office of town councillor was an ar-
duous one, if those who held it would do their duty, as
he, as one of the old Water Committee, had that day ex-
perienced. They had been working from eight o'clock in
the morning to five in the evening, and he was more than
ever impressed with the waste and extravagance that had
of late characterised the doings of the Council from what he
had seen that day :—pipes lying here and there on the docks,
which were of no use now, nor would they be for years to
come • this was the consequence of electing men who did
not take an active part in controlling the public expendi-
ture; they attended the monthly meetings as a matter of
course, but declined to interest themselves further; it was
time this state of things was altered (hear, hear). With
regard to the water question, a deputation had
that very day gone to Glasgow. where he was in
May last, when he could have managed the affair
for £30,000 ; however, Mr. Haigh and Mr. Newlands
had gone to see what they could do. Here the chairman
indicated different items of corporate extravagance, one of
which was the paying of 9s. per square yard for land, and
concluded by showing the necessity there existed for
reforming all this, and recommending Mr. Chalmers as a
gentleman prepared to carry out these views.
T. CHALMERS, Jun., Esq., delivered a very succinct
and terse address, the details of which our space prohibits
us from giving. He deprecated the extravagant expendi-
ture of public money, and showed that the only mode of
remedying the abuse was by returning men willing to fulfil
the duties imposed on them by their acceptance of office;
if he had not been prepared to give up the time necessary
for this. he would not have come before them that even-
ing. He looked upon the Rivington Pike scheme as a
bringing of coals to Newcastle; the surface water, how-
ever filtered, could not be so pure as our water, after
percolating through the red sandstone at the great depth
it was known to do. He considered the expense of the
Pike would be one million ; and he asked if that would
not cause an increase in the already increasing water rate.
With respect to the rating question, he was decidedly of
opinion that the docks should bear their due share, espe-
cially as rateable property had been destroyed to make
room for them, and moreover as they were the producers
of a lsrge amount of pauperism : it was absurd to
pretend that such a sum as £20,000 would injure the trade
of the port. With regard to the mode of rating the
property, he was of opinion that if the owners of one
description of property were rated, owners of every class
ought to be. At the conclusion of his address several
burgesses put questions to Mr. Chalmers; his answers
were in accordance with his views as expressed previously.