The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-06-21 00:00:00

SHIPBUILDING IN THE ISLE OF MAN.

It may not be generally known to our readers, that under the
existing.laws, all the foreign materials used in the construction
and equipments of
ships are subjected, in the Isle of Man to a
comparatively trifling duty.. The two important articles of
oak,e can be laid
Baltic pine timber and foreign (European)
load less than
down there at the enormous difference of 50s.
the same articles cost in the ports of Great BrPtarin
nity from the excise and other duties 011 manya'odf:tlhne immu-
nity
and luxuries of life, contributes also to the
the Manx shipbuilder—in addition to which is thee
fbraoonmutnagtcle-saol_f
al-
lowed on the exportation of sail-cloth and cordage
Britain to the Isle of Man. Under these advantages, merchant
vessels are now built and equipt in that island, to an extent
which threatens serious injury to the shipwrights of the port of
Liverpool; from whose service artizans are induced to desert,
and to settle with the rival shipbuilders. But not only do our
shipwrights suffer from being thus placed on an unequal footing
which prevents them from pursuiug an honourable competition •
but the vessels so ,built obtain British registers, which .entitle
them to all the privileges of vessels built in Great Britain, and
from the great disparity in their cost, they are enabled to car-
ry
.cargoes to any quarter of the world at a reduced rate of
freight, to the prejudice of our shipowners in general.
In these remarks we are actuated by no improper feeling:
towards our neighbours the shipbuilders in the Isle of Man.
The object we advocate it to place the important (though now
greatly depressed) trade of shipbuilding, upon that footing of
fair and honourable competition from which the present in-
quality of taxation, in the instance before us, precludes it.
The shipwrights of Liverpool, sensible of the increasing evil,
have already intrusted our able and zealous representative,
Lord Sandon, with a petition to the House of Commons, which
may, we hope, have the effedt of causing full inquiry to be made
as to the correctness of the facts they have stated, and an appli-
cation of such an equal and impartial remedy as the circum-
stances in justice call for.
That our shipping interest is suffering severer`, is a fact
established by the fall in the value of ships from 40 to 50 per
cent. Deeply interested in the pursuit of maritime commerce,
and anxious that our shipowners should be enabled to compete
with foreigners, and to navigate their ships with profit, our co-
lumns will be ever open to their communications, and we shall
hail with gladness the adoption of any measures calculated to
remunerate them for their capital employed, and to protect
them from the losses they are suffering.
[We take the above from a contemporary, and all we have to
add to it is this—if the operative ship carpenters of this town be
induced to follow the example set them by. the journeymen of
other trades, it would tVitaitkss labour in Lord. Sandon or
any other friend to Liverpool to endeavotir to.secure to it ad-
vantages which are so likely to be abused by combinations.
The present system must be put down, or labour of every kind
must be suspended.—Ed. of the Standard.l

Of the many things that the Times stands in dread of, nothing
seems to touch it so nearly as the possibility of a dissolution of
Parliament. And why ? The answer is obvious. An election
for Berkshire costs forty thousand pounds !
Fisa CONCERT.—Mr. John White, lieutenant of the
,I.Tnited
States navy, in his " Voyage to Cochin-china," describes a
curious aquatic concert which he heard while sailing up the
Don- ai-river. His ears, he says, were saluted by a variety of
soup s, resembling the deep bass of an organ accompanied by
;i the I allow, guttural chant of the bull-frog, the heavy chimes of
ti
a bell, and the tones which imagination would give to an enor-
mous Jew's-harp. This combination produced a thrilling sen-
sation on the nerves, and, as he and his companions fancied, a
tremulous motion in the vessel. Anxious to discover the cause
of this gratuitous concert, he went into the cabin, where he soon
perceived that the sounds proceeded from the bottom of the
vessel. In a' few moments, after having commenced at the
stern of the vessel, the music became general throughout the
whole length of the keel. On enquiring of the linguist on board
respecting the cause of his admiration, Mr. White was informed
that the harmony proceeded from a shoal of fishes, of a fiat oval
form, like a flounder, which, by a certain conformation of the
mouth, possess the power of adhesion to other objects in a won-
derful degree ; and that they were peculiar to that river. But,
whether the sounds were produced by any particular construc-
tion of the sonorific organs, or by spasmodic .vibrations of the
body, the linguist was ignorant.