The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-10-06 00:00:00

TO CORRESPO,NDENTS.

Tag -SA ramor E AS AN Exsoryr Docs.—A correspondent, who
suggests the use of this dock for an export dock, in con-
nexic.n with the Albert warehouses, is informed that such
has all along been the iAention of the Dock Committee, and
ind ed is the natural mode of employing to the best effect
these two a, joining pr perties. At the present moment the
Paragon. recent y discharged in the Albert Dock, is loading
at the north-west corner of al house; and a week ago.-we
saw a cargo of 3 oa bags of sugar warthouseing in the
Albert warehouses from the Salthouse. no doubt because the
importer c lculata d upon its deposit there being n.ore con-
venient than in a warehouse in any other locality.
'We cannot answer the one-tion put by " A Subscriber," but he
„nay obtain the information in all probability, at any of the
insurance offices. Had we r reived hi'. letter a little earlier
we would have made some inqu ry t r bins.
We would advise' G. L. D." i mt di itely to consult a respectable
attorney. Many of that cuss would 11 ost gladly forward his
views.
In Mr. Simpson's letter. in (yr last, the tonnage of the ship
Paragon, discharged at the Albert Dock, was given at 435
tons—which is, in point of fact, the registered amount, but
She will carry a third more than that; and it is no more than
justice to say that ssg tons were disch 'reed in that d ck from
the ship in question, and she Was completely cleared in 38
hours.
'ecannot comply with the wishes of" A Convert." Surely.
there is nothing new iu c aiming a high preeminence tor the
word of God, in the education of the )oung. Luther—even
hence his mind was entirely 'ree from the errors of Popery—
made the same claim as is advanced by us now. In the
course o an address on Romish superstitions, he says," I am
much afraid that the univers4ies will prove to he the grest
gates of hell, unless they diligently labour in explaining the
Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the hearts ot y, uth. I
advise no one to place his child where the scriptures do not
reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not un-
ceasaigly occupied with the word of God mast l'ecome cog.
rapt." Thee are noble words. and deserve as weighty con-
sideration now as they did three centuries ago, when first
written.

(OR Eittrpiol

TUESDAY MORNING, OCT. 6, 1846.

We are quite happy to meet our contemporary,
the igbion, again upon the subject of the dock re-
venue of the port. The more such questions are
discussed, the more likely is the truth respecting
them to be elicited, and the community at large to
be put in possession of the facts and figures required
to render them proof against the sneers and mis-
statements with which their ears are continually
being assailed.

We showed in our last, from the published
"general statement" of the accounts of the dock
estate, that the bonded debt had increased up to the
24th June, 1846, by a nett sum of £308,198 13s,
The Committee, however, had paid for new works,
to their bankers, and for extra materials on ban d
£391,129 7s. Bd., being £82,930 14s. Bd. surplus
paid out of the current receipts of the year. A
simpler mode of stating the case there could not
well be. If a merchant is £2,000 better this year,
after paying all the expenses of his establishment
and his living, that sum is his surplus earnings.
The correctness of the principle the Albion does
not dispute, although he appears to think it is not
abstruse, or "arithmetical" enough, for his tastes.
We give, however, his comment upon it, in which
he finds one error in the detail. He says—

"Nothing can show the necessity of the Dock Com-
mittee keeping separate accounts for the expenditure on
their old and new works more than such a statement as
the foregoing. Here we have the cost of the ' river wall
central works' carried off as t xpenditure on new works,
whereas it is merely a replacement of the old. The ma-
terial is cettainly new, but it is as much a part of the
yearly disbursements of the Dock Estate as clearing out
the mud, and ought to he charged against the annual
revenue. The carrying off to capital account the current
disbursements of the year, is a very convenient way of
making a large surplus revenue, but like all such ingenious
plans of mystifying ' facts,' must, sooner or later, come to
an end."

Hail the D,,ck Committee adopted our contem-
porary's plan of " keeping separate accounts for the
expenditure on their old and new works," the
balance, showing the amount of surplus earnings
carried to the payment of the general expenditure of
the estate, would have stood almost as we have
stated it in our last. The " river wall central works,"
moreover, would certainly have been put down as
new works. They are not merely " a replacement
of oil works," but :re works undertaken by the
Dock Committee which, so far from being "as much
yearly disbursements as clearing out the mud,"
have actually to be paid for ultimately by another
body —the Corporation--for the improvement of
whose property (the tobacco warehouse, &c.) they
have been undertaken, at the especial request of the
Corporation. We leave our contemporary to get
rid of this " fact."

The Albion proceeds to give his notion of the
mode in which the surplus revenue of an estate
should he -shown :
" Surplus revenue we take to be the balance of the
current receipts over the current expenditure, and the
istroduction of items of stock and b .nking accounts only
complicate any statement trorn which such surplus is
evolved"—,

and proceeds to draw out a statement after his own
favorite pattern, in which, dismissing "items of
stock and banking accounts," as unworthy of his
consideration, and setting down the £19,478. 17s sd.
paid for " river wall central works " as current and
411Thriiit y rho snrnius earn-
ings of the estate to the sum of £38,002 Bs. 7d.
This is really a comical way of managing matters ;
and to show its absurdity we must give the pattern
account itself—
The Liverpool Dock Trust Account for the year ending
24th June, 1846
Dr. EXPENDITURE.
To salaries and an-

REVENUE. Cr.
By tonnage du-
ties £114,70915 8
„ duties on goods,
inwards and
outwards.... 98,714 0 6
„ duties from
lighthouses .. 8,732 15 2
„ duties from
floating lights 3,775 15 1
„ duties from
graving docks 12,338 4 0
„ duties from
graving docks 2,308 12 fi
„ trustees of the
late Duke of
Bridgewater.. 9,181 0 0
„ Harrington
Docks 2,244 4 9
„ rent of premi-
ses, &c 4,957 5 10

nuities .......t14,766 16 6
Dock Police es-
tablishment.. 12,671 6 7
disbursements
on account ,f
light-houses,
&c. 13,632 17 10
„ disbursements]
on account of '
docks, (exclu-
sive of new
works) basins,
&c., and mis-
cellaneous dis-
bursements .. 77,157 3 0

118,228 3 11

„ interest onbond
debt
„ interest and
commission
on banking
account.... 1,935 19 5
„ balance to the
credit of ac-
count, being
adurplus reve-
nue

1256,961 13 6

.t256,%1 13 6

Now, first, with respect to the " item of stock,"
(which amounts to £14,732 12s. 7d.) set down by
us against the increased bond debt, we maintain
that we had a perfect right to do so. We owe more
to our creditor—the public—than we did last year :
we say to him, we have so much work executed 1,
with the money, and an increased amount of mate.
rials on hand. So with the banker's balance. We
owe more to the bondholder, hut we have lessened
our banker's debt £13,419 16s. 7d. Add these
items, omitted or placed on the wrong side of the
account, to the Albion's surplus, and they will make
the amount greater than we have shown.
The truth is, anti we must tell our contemporary
plainly, that the principle of his statement, as an
account chewing " the Dock Trust account for the
year ending 24th June, 1846," is incorrect and
utterly absurd, and must necessarily be so in any
account where all mention of the bonded debt, the
banker's account, and the " materials account" is
omitted. For instance, he says the trustees have
paid interest on bond debt £98,000 odd. He omits
all mention, however, of the fact that they have also
paid off dock bonds to the amount of £16,125. To
which side of the account would he carry this item ?
Manifestly, it ought to be somewhere ; and if, in
accordance with his apparent principle, he places it,
with the interest paid, on the debit side, it will
reduce the " balance being surplus revenue,"—the
first time that ever we saw so satisfactory a result
in the affairs of an individual, or a public body, as
a repayment of borrowed capital, shown as evidence
of depreciated solvency. To settle this matter, how-
ever, will he tell us how he manages to account
for his own figures ? He says that all that he can
fairly charge to disbursements for new works is
£337,386 14s. I Id. Well, the nett increase of bond
debt per account published, is .... £308,198 13 0
Balance to be made up out of surplus 29,188 1 11

£337,356 14 11
There remains, therefore, only £8,814 6s. Bd. of his
original surplus of £38,002 Bs. 7d.
Now, out of the sum of £8,814 Gs. Bd.—all that
Me trustees ought to have left—how have they man-
aged to pay
_ .

ist:--To Bankers £13,419 16 7
2d—For Materials extra 14,732 12 7

In all £28,152 0 2 ?
We pause for a reply.
The statement which we have already made, as
to the real increased or surplus revenue of the
Dock Estate, is substantially correct. Had we had
it, we might hare fairly ap.
any idea of exaggerating