The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-09-08 00:00:00

COt kibrrpoot •taann.

OHM!. 2..:;F T. 8,

The statements contained in a letter, published in
our last, from the Secretary of the Birkenhead Dock
Cotupany,
comparing the relative expenses of car-
goes imported into the Mersey by the Birkenhead
new docks on tine one hand, and the Liverpool
docks on the other, seem to us to require a few
words of comment; inasmuch as, if the view taken
by the Company is a correct one, the works on the
Cheshire short; are calculated to strike a heavy blow
against the prosperity of Liverpool, and especially
to weaken the security of the holders of our dock
bonds. We flatter ourselves, however, that we
shall be able to reassure those parties—if, indeed,
there can be any amongst them who have felt seri-
ous apprehensions—of the perfect ability of the

Dock Estate of Liverpool to maintain its present
high state of pro'sperity, notwithstanding any oppo-
sition which may come from the Cheshire side of
the river, or from any other quarter.
The Birkenhead Dock Company ground their
expectation of securing a considerable portion of
the heavy merchandise entering the river, for trans-
port inwards to tl-e manufacturing districls, firstly,
upon the saving of cartage, port•Atage, (3,:c., to arise
from the proximity of the docks themselves to the
dock warehouses which they are erecting, and to

the railway, which is to transport them ; but,
mainly, upon the fact that t'. merchandise im-

ported will neither be subject to the Liverpool town
dues nor to clock rates of any description. From
these sources they skew, in tables which they append.
to their statement, a saving upon a cargo of 1,000
bales of cotton of £lO9 9s. 9d. in favour of the

importer using the Birkenhead docks ; and, upon a
cargo of 1,000 feet of timber, they give the Liver-
pool charges at £4 I Is. 4d., and those of Birken-
head at only £1 17s. Sd. The saving of dock rates
and town dues alone, upon a vessel of 1,000 tons
from New York, by using the BirkenheaJ docks
instead of the Liverpool docks, they estimate at
.el5l 6s. 111.

To enable us to deal with these statements, we
must examine the relative advantages of the two
sides of the river, and the capabilities of this side

to meet the threatened competition, by an accom-
modation of our rates to the circumstances in

which we are about to be placed. In the first
place we must explain, what is perhaps lost sight of
by some parties, that the body issuing such state-
ments—the Birkenhead Dock Company—is not the
body providing the dock facilities, whose superior
cheapness is represented. The docks are in the
hands of a body of " Commissioners," described by
the letter referred to as " a public body created in
1844 by the act of parliament which authorised the
construction of the docks ; to them the Crown has
granted an area of wharfage and water space of
2721 acres, which form the site of the works; on
the security of this property, and of the rates which
are to he levied on the shipping making use of the
docks, they have boi.i-owed money for their con-
struction." Tae Dock " Company" themselves,
who put forth the appeal to the merchants and
shipowners of Liverpool, to which we are now re-
ferring, is a private body, a partnership, with views
solely of their own aggrandisement, and uninte-
rested permanently in the profitable or onprofita-
ble working of the docks, at the prices wit which
their Commissioners set out. They are, thus offer-
ing to the merchants of Liverpool advantages, to be
derived through the cheapness of a t different
body—possibly to he derived from the losses sus-
tained by that company. The Dock Commissioners
may or may not be able to work their docks, by the
aid merely of the tonnage dues upon shipping,
which alone they are authorised to levy ; and if not,
what becomes of the statement of comparative
cheapness paraded before us ? Or, if the Liverpool
Dock Committee are likely shortly to be in a position
to afford us equal advantages, with the additional
facilities presented by the location of their works on
this, undoubtedly the best, side of the river, again
we have to ask, what becomes of the statement of
the Birkenhead Dock Company ?
Now, we submit that both alternatives are against
the Dock Company. We cannot believe that the
Commissioners can profitably work their docks with
mere dues upon tonnage. Dock water space and
quay room is never productive of reasonable inte-
rest upon the outlay required for their construction,
without higher rates than the Commissioners are
authorised to levy, unless some co-operative source
of profit exists. The Dock Companies of London
pay fair dividends; but only because they have dock
warehouses as auxiliaries. Here in Birkenhead the
warehouses are in the hands of a private company.
In our own town, it is true, we have a large surplus
income, irrespective of any concern with ware-
houses; but that is a surplus over the interest on
the debt alone and the expenses of working, not
over the original cost of our docks, a very great
portion of that cost having been paid by the old
Corporation, thus leaving a large mar the
mere interest on the debt. We suspe,:. y ;fiat
the Birkenhead docks, with their low ci.u. "es, can-
not be remunerative. We doubt whether they will
pay, with those charges, the interest of the money
borrowed for their construction. Their working
will doubtless benefit the Warehouse Company and
the owners of land in Birkenhead • but we fear it
will be attended with loss to the Birkenhead Dock
Commissioners. The result must be, as far as we
can see, the exaction of the extreme rate of tonnage
dues allowed by the act of parliament, and, too pro-
bably, the adoption of a scale of dues on goods.
A very different prospect of public advantage to
accrue is presented by the Dock Estate of Liver-
pool. That estate will have in the present year
something like £lOO,OOO of surplus income. This
very statement of the Birkenhead Dock Company
informs us that the income of the Dock Estate of
Liverpool, during the year ended 24th June, 1845,
was £232,479 10s. 9d. It has increased since, and
is increasing. The opening of the Albert Dock
Warehouses, the interest upon the cost of which
we have been paying without a farthing of return,
will further increase our receipts and our surplus.
This surplus we can get rid of, by a reduction of
our Dock Rates. It may be done next year, or any
year ; for it will not be necessary to retain a greater
income than will fully cover our bonded debt,
which, unlike that of our neighbours, does not re-
present the cost of one-third of the docks them-
selves. Here is one source of cheapness to offer
against Birkenhead. We shall shortly have a rail-
way communication from end to end of our Dock
Estate, which will give additional facilities and
cheapness. And to aid us, we have besides, the ad-
vantages of our established position as a depot of
the entire commerce of the district, with communi-
cations formed and forming in every direction. We
are therefore under no fear whatever of the compe-
tition with which we are th:•eatenecl ; and expect
very shortly to see the apparen advantages over us,
which the :Birkenhead
.Dock Company parade in
their statement, swept away.

It is far from a pleasurable task to us to have to
enter into this comparison of our powers of serving
the public with those of our juvenile neighbour. We
had thought that it was long ago a settled point that
all jealousy between the two localities was to cease,
and that they were to act as aids to each other, and
to the general commerce of the river, rather than
as bickering competitors. The Birkenhead Dock
Company, however, with a lack, we think, both of
good taste and good judgment, have compelled us
to direct the attention of the public to their own real
position and oars; and having done so, we lay down
our pen, only assuring them, that whilst the people
of Liverpool, and those who have confided to them
the management of the Liverpool Dock Estate, en-
tertain every good feeling towards the enterprise of
the people of Birkenhead, they are not prepared to
allow them to run away with any considerable
amount of the commerce which has hitherto
visited the docks and the port of Liverpool.
In connexion with this subject, and as tending to
show what must be the ulterior prosperity of this
port,-with the facilities offered on both sides of the
river, worked for the advantage of the locality and
the public generally, instead of being marred in
their operation by the introduction of an injurious
spirit of rivalry, we are enabled to offer the follow-
ing statistics, from a speech recently delivered by
Mr. Visger, in the Bristol Town-council. The gen-
tleman in question was referring to the high rates
levied in that port upon tonnage and produce; and
instituted the following comparison of the charges
of his own town, and those levied in Liverpool :
He bad made inquiries as to the charges at Liverpool,
and although before he had an idea that there was a diffe-
rence, he bad no conception that it was so great as it
turned out to be. He bad taken nine articles, the most
prominent in commerce, and three of them West India
produce : those were coffee, rum, sugar, brandy, olive oil,
palm oil, tallow, tobacco, and wine. He had taken the
Liverpool and Bristol rates, and without going into detail