The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-08-08 00:00:00

REPORT ON PORTERAGE.

The TOWN-CLERK commenced proceedings by reading
the report of the special committee appointed to
inquire into the present system of porterage, and any
abuses which may exist therein :
The report began by stating, that though the committee
think some modifications may be made in the present
system, they are unanimously of opinion that the system
is in itself not only more expeditious and less expensive
than the former one, but that, with the exception of some
few instances which have been brought before them, the
goods have been discharged and loaded off the quay with
at least as much care as under the former system. The
committee recommend that the original intention of giv-
ing to the firm having the largest amount of produce the
nomination of master porter should be strictly adhered to,
whereby the practice of canvassing would be entirely
abolished. The committee think that the goods are not
in all instances weighed with that degree of accuracy on
the quay which is necessary, attributable chiefly to a
relaxed attention on the part of the Customs in the dis-
charge of free goods, and they recommend that no porter
should be thus employed who has not received a certificate
of competency and character. The report condemns the
keeping by master porters of lodging houses, beer houses,
or any shop where the principle of the truck system may
be carried out, and recommends merchants, brokers, &c.,
to institute a searching inquiry into the course pursued
in this respect by the warehouse-nen to whom they
entrust the employment and payment of their porters.
The committee concur in the desirableness of appointing a
superintendent to each dock to overlook the master pos-
ters, as well as to hear any complaints, and to report them
to the Dock Committee. They repeat the suggestion
of providing a stand at each dock for porters
and labourers where they can be found when unemployed.
Although the new system has led to the employment of
fewer hands, and the establishment of a lower rate of por-
terage, they do not believe that the employment of the
operative porter will be to that extent diminished, as the
increased facilities and lower rates of the new system must
tend to increase the trade of the port. Whilst the com-
mittee feel that much of the distress among the porters
arises from a general depression of trade, and a redundant
population. they:think that much injustice has been done
by the employment, at a low rate of wages, of inexperi-
enced hands. They have no wish to interfere, even in
appearance with the price of labour, yet they tihnk
that, as the book of rates was calculated on the basis
of 3s. 6d. per day, the difference between that rate
and 2s. to 2s. 6d. per day, which has not unfrequently
been paid, is an injustice to the experienced operative por-
ter, and they therefore recommend that no porter, not
permanently engaged by the,week or year, should havea less
amount of wages than 3s. 6d. per day, which would have
the effect not only of giving protection to the able and
experienced porter, but would obviate the temptation
at present existing of employing inexperienced men, and
thus afford additional security to the proper handling of
the goods when loaded. The committee think that, though
the book of rates is very accurately calculated, there are
a few articles in it which require revision.
Mr. HUGH HORNBY, in moving the adoption of this
report, said that the committee had devoted a great deal of
attention to the subject, apd that they had consulted par-
ties connected with every interest in the town, from whom
information could be obtained. They had been ani-
mated by a desire to come to some conclusion which
would promote the interests of the operative porters, but
it was the unanimous opinion of the committee that a
recurrence to the unsatisfactory and vexatious system of
porterage adopted previously to the present arrangement
coming into operation would not have that effect, but
that, on the contrary, it would result in positive injury to
the operative porter. At the same time, they were of
opinion that several modifications in the present system
were desirable, and that some of these would have a ten-
dency to remove many of the grievances complained of.
He then referred to the modifications referred to in the
report, and said that 'if the report were adopted a more
respectable class of porters would in future be employed,
instead of the raw, inexperienced hands who had been
hitherto engaged, and who had caused a very considerable
amount of damage by their unskilled labour. He con-
cluded by expressing the thanks of the committee to the
mayor, for his kindness in having presided over the prin-
cipal part of the committee's investigations, notwithstand-
ing the arduous duties which, as chief magistrate of the
town, he had had to attend to during the late disturbances.
Mr. ROBINSON seconded the adoption of the report.
He admitted that he had entered on the recent inquiry
with a predisposition in favour of the old system, but
that after having beard the evidence, he conceived the
present system to be advantageous to various interests of
the port.
Mr. PARKER said be was unwilling to detract from the
credit which was due to the committee, but in his opinion
the report did not go far enough. He highly approved of
the principle it enunciated, but he was desirous that the
operative porter should enjoy the full remuneration for
his services. He understood that the master porter re-
ceived his amount of charge, agreeably to a certain scale
-of labour, but that an enormous per centage was deducted
from the operative porter by the warehouseman. Now,
he (Mr. Parker) was for giving a fair day's wages for a
fair day's work, and, therefore, he was opposed lb the
warehouseman pocketing, in some instances, the srnling
a day which of right belonged to the porter. He wished
to remedy the system, by preventing the warehodseman
from engaging and paying the porter, and by endeavour.
ing to have the porter engaged by the merchant and paid
in the merchant's office.
Mr. BRAMLEY-MOORE said that he was not, until that
moment, aware of the contents of the report, and that he
was desirous of making some observations upon it before
the discussion proceeded further. In the first place, it
was superfluous for the committee to recommend that no
master-porter should be connected with any beer-house,
because in the list of master-porters there was not a sin-
gle one of them connected with any beer-house in Liver-
pool. That list had some time ago been carefully gone
through by the Dock Committee, and the only man on it
who was supposed to have a connexion with a beer-house
was struck off. He objected to the appointment of su-
perintendents by the Dock Committee, upon the ground
that that would entail a very heavy annual expenditure
upon the estate ; and, with reference to this point, he
reminded the Council that, the Dock Committee derived
no benefit whatever from the new system of por-
terage, and that their services in the matter were
perfectly gratuitous. They certainly acted as the
executive ; they executed the bonds for the master-
porters; but the Estate did not derive a single shilling in
the shape of advantage for all this trouble, and therefore
it would be going too far now to saddle it with the sala-
ries of superintendents. The Report went on to say that
a great deal of damage had been done to cargoes by the
employment of inexperienced hands ; but the complaints
on this head had been exceedingly few, probably about 3
or 4, and then they were dealt with in a very summary
manner. Nothing would rejoice him more than to see
the operative porters getting their 3s. 6d. a-day, as re-
commended in the Report, but he could not help remind-
ing the Council that the difficulty of legislating for the
price of labour was exceedingly great. it was a dulusion
and an impossibility that the Council could fix a rate of
wages, because labour, like everything else, was regulated
by supply and demand. (Hear, hear.) They might as
well fix it at ss. as at 3s. 6d., because they had just
as much power to enforce it in the one case as
in the other; and besides, it ought to be borne in mind,
that some men were better worth 6s. a day than others
were worth ls. 6d. or 2s. (Hear.) He knew not how
the system of canvassing for the discharge of vessels, al-
luded to in the report, could be obviated : and, with re-
spect to the present mode of appointing the master por-
ters by the parties owning-two thirds of a cargo, lie could
,
only say that that was an arrangement made by con'.ult-
ing with the merchants and consignees. With reference
to the stand for porters, he had no objection to that per-
sonally, but he knew that a very great objection to it ex-
isted in the minds of the men themselves, and also of the
consignees. He assured the Council that he offered
these remarks in the best possible spirit, and that the
Dock Committee were extremely willing to make such
general arrangements on the subject of porterage as would
be for the mutual advantage of all parties. . .

Mr. RATHBONE said ho felt so strongly upon the impo-
licy of fixing the rate of wages that he had drawn up the
following amendment,—" That the recommendation fix-
ing the rate of wages at 3s. 6d. a-day would be practically
inoperative, and opposed to the principle that supply and
demand should alone regulate that rate, and that the
wages clause be omitted from the report." He believed
that the Council understood the principles of Political
Economy better than the French people, and that they
would, by adopting this amendment, not fall into the er-
ror of their continental neighbours. He hoped the porters
would not consider him their enemy for having made this
proposition, for he could assure them that he was as much
opposed as Mr. Parker was to any system of fraud by the
warehousemen, and quite as anxious that every man
should have a fair day's wages for a fair day's work.
Mr. EVANS remarked that the report found fault with
a redundant population ; but how, he asked, was such a
population to be obviated ? Then, with reference to its
enunciations about gains upon labour, why there was not
a manufacturer in the country who did not derive his
capital from gain upon labour. He conceived that the
club laws of this country ha I invariably worked a very
great injury, because they had compelled the payment of
the unskilful equally high with the good workman ; and
nothing was more unjust than this, or more hostile to the
real interests of trade and of the country at large. In his
opinion, absolute free trade in labour was as requisite as
in any other department, and that it would be quite new
in England for a man to be told that unless he got 3s. 6d. a
day he must not work for 2s. 6d. (Hear.)
The MAyon expressed a hope that he might be permit-
ted, having taken some interest in this question, to make
an observation or two on what had fallen from Mr. Moore
and other members. He regretted that Mr. Moore should
have said that he had only just become acquainted with
the contents of the report, because that report had been
now before the Council ten clays, and, had he read it
.before, in all probability he would not have made the ob-
servations to which he had given utterance. One of his
remarks was, that the Dock Committee derived no benefit
from dock porterage, and that therefore they ought not
to be called upon to appoint superintendents ; but if Mr.
Moore had read the evidence lie would have found that
the Dock Committee did derive a great deal of benefit
from the system, for, if a vessel was discharged and re-
loaded in one-third of the time now that she was formerly
then the system must be of very considerable advantage. He
considered it very important to put an end to canvassing.
It was a general complaint of the merchants that they did
not wish to be canvassed, and that by a slight alteration
suggested in the report, a proper master porter would in-
variably be appointed. lie thought the amendment did

not come very well from Mr. Rathbone, who was himself
a master porter. The report stated that the book of rates
was calculated at 3s. 6d. a-day as between the merchant
and the master porter ; and what the committee contended
was, that the master porter should be compelled to,pay to
the labouring porter that which the master porter rbceived
from the merchant. (Applause.) They had reason to
believe that there was a great deal of underhand work
between the warehouseman and the porter on the quay,
and that the former did, in some way or other, receive a
portion of that money which ought to go into the hands of
the latter. The committee had endeavoured to find out
such cases, but they had failed in establishing them, be-
cause parties were unwilling to come forward ; but they
had no doubt that very large sums of money went into the
hands of the warehouseman instead of into the hands of
the porters. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. Isltcm. said it appeared manifest enough that there
was no power upon the part of the Council to punish any
master-porter who paid a less sum than 3s. 6d. a day.
The MAYOR.—None whatever; it is a mere recommen-
dation.

Mr. NICOL observed that such a recommendation would
be ridiculed, and that no man could be expected to become
a master-porter if he were compelled to pay the operative
porter all the money he received. The Dock Committee
had undertaken a very thankless office in interfering about
the porterage ; but now that the sharp end of the wedge
had been inserted, it was rather too much to endeavour to
drive in the broad end, by compelling the committee to
pay the wages of superintendents.
Mr. MANN contended that the appointment of superin-
tendents would only entail useless expense, and that in
case of appeals, there was a committee already sitting who
were perfectly able and willing to afford redress.
Mr. S, HOLME was decidedly of opinion that the Coun-
cil were about to fall into the great error which the vari-
ous trades of England had already fallen into—that of
trying to do that which was an absolute impossibility, the
fixing of a rate of wages. He had never known an in-
stance yet in which a good workman was without employ-
ment; and he cautioned the Council to pause, and, by
not interfering between those who wanted labour and
those who had it to sell, to leave it free as air.
Mr. AIKIN seconded the amendment, and in doing
so said that however excellent and admirable the language
of the report might be, it was quite out of the question to
fix the rate of wages at 3s. 6d. Ile agreed with Mr.
Hornby in saying whatever advantage was derived from
this report would almost wholly be attributable to the
Mayor, and he admitted that if the master porters en-
abled the vessels to be despatched with greater speed
than formerly, it would be a decided benefit to the Dock
estate.

In reply to Mr. Harbord,
Mr. MOORS observed that lodging-house keepers as
well as beer-house keepers were excluded from practising
as master porters.
After a few remarks from Mr. BENN and Mr. HENDER-
SON,
Mr. H. HORNBY replied. There were only two material
objections to the Report. One was, with regard to the
appointment of superintendents .at the docks. and the
other with regard to the fixing of the rate of wages. He
feared that many of the gentlemen who had addressed the
Council, could not have read the voluminous evidence
taken by the Committee, because the East Indian and
China Association bad spoken at length of the great
benefits to be derived from the appointment of superin-
tendents, and the rate of 3s. 6d. a day had been enumer-
ated in the rules and scales originally published for the
porters.
Mr. PARKER inquired whether master porters were at
liberty to vote in a division ?
The MAYOR, acting under the instructions of the
Town-Clerk, replied that they were not; but the vote
would be taken, leaving it to the consciences of gentlemen
interested to act as they might think proper.
The Council divided, when there appeared :
For Mr. Rathbone's amendment.... 20

Against it
The amendment was consequently carried. The fol-
lowing gentlemen voted in the division :
For it :—Messrs.•W. Walthew, J. Woodruff, W. Rath-
bone, E_ Evans, J. Aikin, J. Rogers, S. Holme, G.
Booker, T. Kaye, J. B. Lloyd, J. Plumpton, G. H. Law-
rence, J. Booker, Thos. Lloyd, R. Benn, W. Mann, John
Holmes, W. Nicol, J. Bramley-Moore, and J. H. Turner.
Against it :—Messrs. T. Littledale, jun., G. H. Hors-
fall, H: Hornby, J. A. Tinne, R. S. Henderson, T. Ro-
binson, Thos. Rimmer, T. Royden, H. G. Harbord, J.
A. Tobin, C. W. Reade, W. Earle, J. Parker, J. Cooper,
J. Procter, and the Mayor.
The report was adopted, with the exception of the
wages clause, which was referred back to the committee.