The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-02-16 00:00:00

THE HARRINOTON WATER WORKS,

Mr. STANISTREET, on behalf of this Company, rose to ad
dress the Court. He said that from the statement which had
been made by the Town-clerk, he should not feel it his duty to
depart from the course which he said he would pursue at the
beginning of this inquiry; still, however, on behalf of the
company which he represented, lie could not allow that court
to close without making some observations, and offering some
evidence, on a few of the statements put forward during the
course of the enquiry. He would say nothing of the manner
in which his friend (Mr. Shuttleworth) had conducted the case—
it was all that could be done in the spirit of fairness he had no
doubt ; but still he (Mr. Stanistreet) could not avoid stating,
that he believed the Town-clerk had been mis-informed as to some
of the subjects on which he had spoken. On these points it
would be his duty to correct him. He referred to the Com-
pany's Act of Parliament of 1822, as if it had been the first
which the Company had been incorporated under; but he did
not tell them that so far back as 1786, an Act of Parliament
(the 26 of Geo. III.) was obtained by what was the then existing
company, the Corporation, which gave them full power over the
whole ofthe water-work s of the town.. He merely mentioned this
in order to explain that so far back as that time the corporation
had full power for supplying the whole of the borough. These
powers they undoubtedly possessed ; and still during a period
of twenty years they took no steps towards their execution.
He would pass over a great portion of the time which inter-
vened, and come to the year 1822, when the first good scheme
for supplying this town with water was proposed. Then the
present company obtained a transfer of their powers from the
corporation. In 1822 the title of the company was changed :
it then became the " Liverpool Corporation Water Company ;"
and by the bills which they then obtained, the power of their
jurisdiction was extended to Toxteth-park. He might be
allowed also to explain that this Act of 1827 provided, in the
first place, that the proprietors should have the option of no-
minating the houses that were to be supplied gratis ; end, se-
condly, they were to receive 5 per cent. on the money which
their capital then realised ; and, thirdly, additional capital was
to be raised by means of shares, the income from which was to
be divided—one-twentieth to the corporation and nineteen-
twentieths to the proprietors. Under the powers of this act
the company went on extending their works from time to
time, meeting the demand of the people for the supply of water
as it was made; and, indeed, he might say, not only meeting
it, but really anticipating the demand in almost every case. In
proof of that he would refer them to the rapidity with which
their population had increased. In 1821, the population
of this town was but 70,000? whilst in 1841, they amounted to
270,000. From that they might be able to form some estimate
of how vastly great the increased demand for water must have
been. He might also state that for a long time the under-
taking was very unproductive. For many years there were
next to no dividends; and when a dividend was de-
clared the amount was laid out in the extension of the
works, and not appropriated by the shareholders. In 1846
they obtained their last act; but as they were well acquainted
with its provisions, he would not waste the time of the court by
repeating them. Those were the three acts under which the
company were bound. And now he would refer to the mode of
supply adopted by the company, which, ati they were already
aware was the mode adopted in the Metropolis, and in the ma-
jority of all the large towns in England. He believedthat there
was no other town in the kingdom where, generally speak-
ing, a better or more wholesome supply of water could
be obtained. He was aware that in some districts of
Liverpool the supply was objectionable; but, if it were so, the
fault rested not with the company but with the owners of pro-
perty themselves. It had been stated that the poor were not
supplied. Admitting that in some parts of the town that due
attention to their interests and their welfare was not paid
which should be paid, still, he would ask, whose was the fault ?
Again, he would answer, the owners of property, and not the
company • for the company made no distinction between
the rich' and the poor, both were supplied alike, and
both at the same time. And if the landlords of
small houses would only devote proper attention to their
welfare and the interest of themselves, by providing proper re-
ceptacles for the water, such complaints as they had been
treated to would now be unheard of. With reference to the
evidence brought before the court on that subject, it would be
best answered by the visit made that morning by the surveying
officers.themselves ; and relying on their own observation on
these matters, he would not trouble them with any remarks on
the subject. They had seen those cisterns where they were
erected, and they had also seen that where the landlords
supplied them there was no want of water—in fact, that
a • supply, as good as if it were constant, was obtained.
Whether the cisterns could be introduced into all the
courts, he was not prepared to say ; but he thought
they might be made much more general than they were.
He thought, also, that the onus •of the want of supply to
the peor of Liverpool rested entirely with the owners of pro-
perty, and not with the company. Formerly all the common
houses in the town were supplied by common stand pipes.
Latterly, however, owing to the exertions of the company, a
supply, through separate pipes, taken into each house, has
been given to a very large extent. In 1516 courts separate
house pipes have been substituted for the old stand pipes:
The proportion of stand pipes left up on the Ist of January,
1846, as compared with the number of separate pipes which he
had not mentioned, were 323; and the number of cisterns, one
to each court, were 41. During the last twelve months he
might mention that a very large number of cisterns had been
erected in addition to those ; because, by the powers of the
company's new bill, they could force the landlords to erect
cisterns in their courts. He believed that the proportion of
ou
weddedroe ,
about t
i exceededitehtte atly that
stemstlyti
she
tseeeonfii iot directorsno
cisterns, as compared with stand pipes which were in Liver-
nitia lend
constant supply.
London.
conte
rary,
h had been said
to adopt any and whatever mode which coultotlmhbel considered ctsoi ud wereledre d inclined
naaosst-
tbeesstttfloiertploiesxbuilliti iy
onftetrheesronAtnd some time ago, in order to
eminent engineer, Mr.
wick: ant supply, they brought a very
courtssp and. I(di
jahc(eet
,pwho reported to them on
the subject,—that report he wouldte evidence ; and he
would show by that, that now manyuotfithase
respectable houses were receiving a constant
to what had been said about the time at which the 1."
been kept on, it did not apply tobis company. liewould
Mr. Al'llonald, from whom they would hear that the water was
on regularly three times a-week,--never earlier than six o'clock
in the morning, and never later than eight in the evening, and
never for a shorter time than one hour at once. He would
prove to them that during the service all the cisterns in the
courts were filled ; and if parties had receptacles for holding
the water in, they never could be short of a good supply. In
addition to this he would also state that the Company had
placed no limit on the sizes of the cisterns. They might have
as much water as they pleased. Something ha. i said of
the
.quality of the water, and although he intend
to give any evidence on that subject he could 1p refer-
ring them to some published statements, which- .d been for
a long time before the •public. He would- first refer them to
the Report of the Committee of the Corporation to the Health
of Towns' Commissioners. Speaking on the nature of the sup-
ply of water, in reply to some questions put to them, they very
properly said, inthe commencement of their answers, that they
would rather refer them to the company for any information they
might require. But'they said also (in vol. 1, report 2) that " the
water was good and the supply abundant." He would also re-
mind them that Mr. Rushton stated that the water was excellent.
Mr. Holme had also stated in his work, that the water was
pure and good, as indeed all the water was in this locality. In
the table of returns, which the Health of Towns' Commission-
ers issued they found under the head " Liverpool," " water ex-
tremely pure ; " and with regard to its qualities for shipping
purposes, it could not be denied that it was pre-eminently good.
On that subject even Dr. Duncan stated that he never knew an
instance of its disagreeing with the constitution of any person
but one. He would next allude to its qualities for manufacturing
purposes ; and mithat point he begged to remind them that they
had received no evidence against the company either as to the
quantityor quality of the water supplied. The real queiltion in
his opinion was as to the quantity which could be obtained, and
whether it was sufficient to supply the district. There could be no
doubt that water quite sufficient for that purpose could be ob-
tained; and such being the case he did not know on what prin-
ciple the promoters of the bill intended to justify the expendi-
ture of half a million of money. With regard to the existing
works, they had heard from Mr. Hawkesley that if the ele-
ments could be obtained in the neighbourhood, they could
be made available • for all the purposes of a constant supply
at the small cost of .tlO.OOO. Notwithstanding that the
population of the country had more than trebled since the es-
tablishment of the works, still they had a larger portion of
water than ever. After some further observations on the na-
ture and capabilitiek of the present works, Mr. Stanistreet
concluded by saying that he felt perfectly satisfied that the ar-
ra ngement§ which the Town-clerk had proposed with reference
to the Harrington works would be carried out to the fullest
extent.

Mr. PAGE stated that during their (the snrveyors') visit that
morning to the courts and buildings of the town, they had
heard no complaints of the supply afforded by cisterns; it was
only in the case of stand pipes that any complaints were made.
AIR. HERBERT said that on that point the greatest objection
they had was with the position of the cisterns in the courts. It
was stated that they were placed adjacent to privys—that should
not be the case.
Mr. STANISTREET.—May I ask if during your visit you
heard any complaints regarding the inadequacy of the supply?
Mr. HERBERT.—Not at all.
Mr. PAGE.—Some of the houses are in the most filthy state ;
but that would not in the least reflect on the companv,—but,
indeed, they are not worse in that respect than 1 have seen
them in London.
Mr. James MacDonald sworn and examined by Mr. STANT-
STREET..-1 14111 the superintendent of the Liverpool and Ilstr-