The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-05-30 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

TRANSFER OF THE BTRKENHEAD DOCKS.-
STATE OF THE NEGOCJATIONS.

We informed our readers in our last, that a negociation
bad been set on foot, by which it was hoped that an ar-
rangement would be come to, by which the docks of Bir-
kenhead would be handed over for completion, and be
worked in future by the Liverpool dock trustees. To en-
deavour to bring about such arrangement, a deputation
was despatdied on Monday evening by the Birkenhead
authorities to London, to consult the bondholders on the
subject ; and as the result, three of the latter body, of
whom Mr. Isaac Lyon Goldsmidt was the leading one,
were empowered to enter upon negociations, as to the
terms of the proposed transfer, with the chairman and
members of the Parliamentary Committee of the Dock
Committee, in Landon.
Several interviews, we learn, . were held during the
week ; but no arrangement of a satisfactory character, or
the basis of one, was arrived at. An endeavour was made
by Mr. J. Bramley-Moore to procure from the bond-
holders an offer of a definitive nature ; but the only reply
was a declaration from Sir J. L. Goldsmidt that he, as
the principal bondholder, must be paid off in full, 20s. in
the pound, with interest—a proportion of which, however,
he proposed to take in bonds, renewed by the Liverpool
Dock Committee at a lower rate of interest than those
which now represent his claim upon Birkenhead. As this
was stubbornly adhered to as the basis of the negociations,
and of course could not be assented to, nothing was done
up to the departure of the Dock Chairman to attend the
meeting held in Liverpool on Friday, or seemed likely to
be effected at all, up to the last accounts received. The
bonded debt of the Birkenhead Dock Commissioners
amounts at present to £423,000 ; of this only a portion
has been expended upon the construction of the works to
be purchaed, and that portion not very jndiciously, in
the opinion of the proposed purchasers. Of the remainder
some has been lent, invested in the necessary plant, or
otherwise got rid of. The Dock Committee can, of
course, only treat for the purchase of an actual and bona
fide security; and, until the bondholders have such to offer,
and especially so long as they hold out for the full reim-
bursal of money unwisely invested, some of it, no doubt,
with a view to profit upon other transactions, there can be
no prospect of a negociation being even commenced.
It appears, we understand, very doubtful that Mr.
Goldsmidt can be induced to recede from his present
position ; and, should this be the case, the proposed pur-
chase must fall to the ground, as the Commons committee
have only given until to-day for an arrangement to he
concluded; and, even should they be induced to grant a
further adjournment for a few days, there will be scant
time for procuring the consent of the Dock Trustees here
upon a matter which demands to be maturely weighed.—
There are other difficulties, too, in the way, and some of a
rather intricate character. As the basis of any purchase
of the property by the Liverpool Dock Committee, they
require that all the acts of parliament binding them, with
respect to its application, should be swept away. Now,
this would at once bring us into collision with the Woods
and Forests, who claim the northern strand of the pool,
and who have a claim upon the Dock Commissioners of
Birkenhead, who have undertaken to make a large portion
of it into laud for their use. Again, it brings us into col-
lision with the Railway Company, who, having expended
• a large amount of money for a branch and wharfage land,
demand the completion of the scheme as originally planned.
We should have, besides the Dock Warehouse Company,
the Warehouse Commissioners, the owners of frontages on
the pool, the Commissioners of Birkenhead, and others to
settle with—the whole of whose demands would be quite
incompatible with the application of the estate for any
save purely Birkenhead purposes.
We think we have said enough to show that there is
little probability of any progress being made in a pur-
chase during the present session of parliament at all events;
and if it fall to the ground now; we entertain little expec-
tation of a renewal of the proposition from this side of the
water. It is clear that in the present state of affairs, the
ownership of these docks would involve the Liverpool
Dock Committee in endless contests with our neighbours,
as any attempt on their part to apply them merely as an
adjunct to their own dock estate, for beaching ground,
building yards, foundries, and other purposes for which
they might be made useful, would raise up against them,
from a host of different interests, a' cry that they were
destroying Birkenhead entirely.