The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-01-10 00:00:00

PURCHASE OF BIRKENHEAD FERRY.

(From the Liverpool. Journal.)
The corporation are now in treaty for the purchase; which
we hope there will not be a moment's hesitation to complete,
of the valuable estate constituted of Birkenhead Ferry and
Hotel, and about nine acres of the adjacent land, with all the
shore down to low water mark. The price, £63,000, though
large, does not seem an extravagant one, even without refer-
ence to prospective improvement.
The old corporation showed much less than its usual judg-
ment in purchases, in not securing the whole of the Birken-
head estate belonging to Mr. Price, which a very few years
back might, we have been informed, been bad for £lOO,OOO,
and which, even under the ferry monopoly, which has tended
greatly to check improvement, has immensely increased in
value—possibly to six or seven times that amount. The ad-
vantages of such a purchase, not merely to the corporate
estate, but to the general interests of the people of Liverpool,.
would have been incalculable.

The advantages of the present purchase are great and ob-
vious. If merely sold off, or let on lease, it would afford a
fair investment for money. It gives the corporation, in con-
junction with the Wallasey estate, the monopoly of the only
sites on that side of the water suitable, either in respect of
convenience or economy, for the construction of docks ; and,
more than all, it affords them the means of securing the pub-
lic the free navigation of the river, by affording a landing
place for competition in the conveyance of passengers at the
lowest possible cost. To say nothing of the steamers, the
corporation could not do a more useful or popular thing than
to afford a free slip, at which the poor boatmen on the river
might earn a living in fine weather, by plying, which they do
now under great disadvantage, being compelled to land pas-
sengers on the open beach, since they were driven from the
ancient highway at Woodside.
Under the acts constituting the Liverpool dock trust, the
bond debt contracted in their construction, amounting to
nearly a million and a half, is secured on dock duties payable
equally by all vessels which enter the Mersey, whether they
discharge in the docks or at Runcorn, or any other point on
its shores. This guarantee, to which :the public faith is
pledged, at least so long as the debt remains unpaid, has
been frequently assailed by parties having an interest on
points of debarkation higher up the river, backed by the
representatives of Manchester and the inland towns and
counties ; and at this moment the Harrington dock company
have a bill before parliament for effecting that object. It
was the stumbling-block in the last conservancy bill, and
stands in the way of every attempt to improve the navigation,
and will stand equally in the way of the proposed warehouse
bill ; for we do not believe that the legislature will ever con-
sent to mortgage the whole commerce of the Mersey, to the
extent of six or eight hundred thousand pounds, to build
warehouses in Liverpool ; or that the money can possibly be
borrowed on the particular security of the docks and ware-
houses to be constructed.

Such being the case, the Liverpool corporation and the
dock committee have looked with great and well-founded
jealousy on the formation of any docks by other parties on
the opposite shore, which might not only compete with their
VYglipiS'gP Ain& tsiteddindatiitlN? of~ able dues, from the
but might add new and formidable opponents to a list al-
ready sufficiently formidable of the enemies of their claim
to tax the commerce of the river ; and their purchases on the
shore of Wallasey Pool were dictated by the same judicious
motives as now prompt the one proposed on the creek of
Tranmere. No such objections, however, apply to the con-
struction of docks there, to a certain extent, by themselves.
Whether it would be politic to construct docks for the pur-
pose of discharging, and warehousing on the spot, the car-
goes of inward bound vessels, is certainly a doubtful matter,
and will continue doubtful so long as there are the means of
further dock accommodation within the present line of
quays; and when those are exhausted, the question will be,
whether it is more politic to contend with the sea on the ex-
posed north shore, or to go to the natural shelter on the other
side of the river. But we think there can be no question
that it would greatly facilitate the commerce of the port to
have at Birkenhead•a dock for the reception of flats em
ployed in transferring the merchandise shipped at Liverpool,
like the basins at Ellesmere port, Runcorn, and Weston
Point, at which the different great canals, the feeders of our
commerce, debouch. The necessity of such a port will be
the more decided, when theßirkenhead and Chester Railway
is completed, as a means of transferring to this shore, or
from it, the heavy goods, cattle, and bulky articles of dif-
ferent kinds which that railway will most certainly convey.
The finance committee deserve great credit for their fore-
sight in this matter ; and we again repeat our hope that there
will be not a moment's hesitation in ratifying a contract
every way desirable.