The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-01-06 00:00:00

On Thursday, (the third day,) it was resumed.

The SOLICITOR-GENERAL-,s'aid that as no witnesses
were to be called on the other side, he should address a
few words to the arbitrator; and again with respect to the
duties and difficulties touching the right of the corporation
to compensation, in respect to the reversion of this crown
land, and the power of purchasing the reversion for
.£7,000 ; and he had put his observations on paper, which
he should read, so as to allow Mr. Lloyd to reply to them.
Mr. LLOYD claimed permission to reply in writing,
which was agreed to.
The document read by the Solicitor-General was of
considerable length. It was to the effect that, under the
Ist of the commissioners' acts, the corporation had ac-
quired a power of purchasing the reversion of the crown
lands, as owners of the reversion of the adjoining land ;
that the surveyor had valued it for sale to them for
£7,000; that if the Dock Company's Act had not passed,
the corporation would have purchased the reversion and
absolute right to that land, with all the buildings upon it,
at the end of 73 years • that the company thereby take
from the corporation the power to purchase for £7,000
about one-sixth of the combined property, which in five
years would probably be worth two-and-a-half millions,
and in 73 years five millions. But he did not admit this
to be the legal effect, and would the crown sell at that
price ? He submitted that the arbitrators should ascer-
tain, by a communication with the Woods and Forests,
whether they were about to sell for that price, and also
ascertain whether the company were about to purchase it.
If the company have actually purchased, they have, undef
the compulsion of their act, taken from the corporation
the power of purchasing the reversion of the property,
and made the corporation no compensation at all. The
corporation, he added, were willing that these proceedings
should be put an end to, the company going on with their
75 years' lease, if they left the corporation the reversion.
And if there was any doubt that the corporation, as
owners of the adjoining land, could obtain the reversion
from the crown for £7,000, he suggested the postpone-
ment of the award for two or three weeks, and in the
meantime the corporation would obtain a conveyance
from the crown at that price. If the crown refused to
sell, or demanded more than £7,000, he would be content
to stake the case upon it.

It appeared that if the award were not made in three
months it fell to the ground.
Mr. STEWART, on being further questioned, said the
average price per yard of the land in fee-simple in pos-
session, the valuation of which he made at £7OOO was
about 12s. in its rude state. It was an universal price for
free-shore land, except under such circumstances, under
an act of parliament. He never before heard of the rights
of shores being valued so high, but his attention was
called by the crown officers to the fact, that the crown
had given very lengthy free rights of shores for the foun-
dations of commercial ports; and that that land was to
adjoin certain works, and to form part of those docks.
After some further unimprtant matter,
Mr. LLOYD proceeded to remark upon the case, in be-
half of his clients, in an address which occupied three
hours. No doubt, he said, the Solicitor General would
fain that the Birkenhead Company should withdraw from
these proceedings, leaving the Corporation of Liverpool
to the enjoyment of their reversionary interest, but that
was but a bait. The commissioners knew that without an
act of parliament they would nover overcome the obstacles
between them and the corporation ; they also knew that the
certainty of the obtaining the whole title to themselves was
indispensable to the complete success of their schemes. The
objects of the corporation were obvious. Twenty years ago
when a project was started to improve the whole of Birken-
head ,they had stepped in and purchased the land to prevent.
They bad kept that land unproductive for 20 years ; and
now they asked the company not to take the fee-simple,
but leave it to the corporation of Liverpool. The solici-
tor-general had not fairly put the question between the
parties, in requiring any doubt to go in on behalf of the
claimants ; for the scheme it was admitted would be of
public benefit, and though the company had private in-
terests in it those were not to be treated unjustly. So
much as the land was worth, so much the corporation
should have, and no more. No person should be allowed
to stop a public benefit. A fair value was all that should
be given. The land should be taken at its marketable
value. The mode of assessing it by the mere contingent
and speculative value of property—which never might
be improved was fallacious and unjust. The question to
ascertain was, what was the improved rental on which the
years' purchase was to be calculated. The rule was in
property to be improved, to look to the class of buildings
to be put upon it, then to the rental, and what rental will
be produced ; then to say so many years' purchase for the
lease, and so many for the reversion, and the difference
between them according to the term unexpired, will be the
value of the reversion at that moment. The Corporation
proceeded, according to Mr. Stewart, on the same prin-
ciple, in renewals. It had been said that Birkenhead was
to become a second Liverpool, but this was speculative
and visionary. The scheme might go on well, and the
Corporation at the end of seventy-five years, pocket a
million and a half, whilst the adventurers, the company,
might lose their all. The Corporation were to be paid an
enormous sum for the lease of their land, and would
have that over and over again in the shape of reversion.
The assumption was that Birkenhead would become a
most magnificent port, but history furnished many
instances of failure in schemes still more flattering
in the beginning. It was quite clear the Corporation sold
the land, with a full knowledge of what was to be done.
The first act enabled the purchasers to dam up the pool.
The second went further ; it enabled them to enclose the
sides by a sea wall, and make a roadstead. The mere
contracting the pool, rather went to injure than benefit
the lessees, by the second act, unless something else were
done. War it fair to suppose that £4,000,000 of money,
besides the interest upon it while the works were going
on (making it not less than £2,000,000), should be laid
out by a few individuals simply purchasing a lease of the
property ? The lessees were not bound to lay out the
enormous sums stated by Mr. Stewart, in order to bring
themselves round. The speculative value of the reversion
being gone, the arbitrators must put out of their consi-
deration the existence of this company, and of this project,
and they must assume what, at the end of 75 years, would
be the value of the reversion, just as of any ordinary pro-
perty belonging to the Corporation. Here was the datum
then : that with the buildings it would be worth Is. a yard,
or very nearly 7 per cent. on £294,284. Taken at 18
years' purchase, the reversionary value would be £362,450
at the end of 73 years. The present value, therefore, of
this sum, at 3 per cent. per annum, was £42,700; at 4
per cent. per annum, it was £21,092. Either way, taking
Mr. Stewart's own calculation, it came to very much less
than he had supposed. Why should the company be
saddled down with the burthen of this very heavy rever-
sionary price, which it was now sought to fix upon them ?
They were called upon to lie out of their interest for five
years, and pay £141,000 as a permanent charge on the
land created by the co-property too, at the end of 75
years to go into the hands of the corporation. The cor-
poration would then, forsooth ! be content; but it would
put an end to the speculation on the other side of the wa-
ter. They (the corporation) knew that ; their object was
that. That corporation was made up of individuals hav-
ing interest in warehouses in Liverpool, and they would
exert themselves to prevent anything coming into play
which they suppose wonld injure Liverpool interest so far
as they were their own. The witnesses called were all
(with the exception of one) were interested in preventing
the scheme on the other side from being carried into
effect. In conclusion, he said that it would be incorrect
to adopt the system pursued by the witnesses, and assume
property in Birkenhead to be estimated according to the
improved value of property in Liverpool—the latter being
a great fact, the other a speculation, the success of which
was still uncertain. He left the case with confidence in
the hands of the arbitrators.

The arbitrators then appointed Mr. Leigh Andrews as
umpire between them, in the event of their differing upon
any point ; and it was also agreed that counsel should af-
terwards be heard on those points.
After some conversation relative to the payment of
costs, to which the corporation were entitled, the case
closed.