The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-10-01 00:00:00

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SPECIAL MEETING OF THE COUNCIL
YESTERDAY.

A special meeting of the Council was held yesterday,
for the purpoie of receiving the Report of the Committee
appointed to enquire into the best means of accommodat-
ing the Shipbuilding Trades of this port. In the absence
of his worship the Mayor, Mr. T. B. Horsfall presided ;
and at the opening of the proceedings we noticed 29
members present.

The Report, which was read by Mr. Driffield, explained
the course which had been adopted by the Committee in
pursuance of their inquiries ; and gave a synopsis of the
evidence of the various witnesses examined, the principal
facts detailed in which are already familiar to our
readers. The most important portion of it requiring
notice is the conclusions at which they have arrived, and
which they recommend for the adoption of the Council.
Believing that the cost of taking the land now occupied
by the Tobacco Warehouses might be great, and that the
s'te of the Harrington Estate, and the west sides of the
Brunswick and Queen's Docks, could not he made avail-
able without injury to the timber trade, they have come to
the conclusion to recommend the securing of the land
eastward of the new steam dock, and north of the San-
don Graving Dock. The following extract from the
Report itself will best explain the Committee's views :
"This plan, therefore, your committee recommend for adop
tion. The site is to the eastward of the new Steam Dock, and
immediately north of the Sandon Graving Dock. It is proposed
to make a Launching Dock, which would be a repairing dock
also, having all conveniences prepared for putting large boilers
into steam-ships, taking out masts, &c. ; and, in fact, every-
thing that can facilitate and cheapen the cost of repairing. This
dock would be about no feet wide, amply sufficient for launch-
ing a vessel into, (the launching space at Hull and in the Clyde
being nothing like so great.) Around this dock would be ranged
the building-yards, attached to which would be a private grav-
ing-yard for each dock. The estimated cost of such a dock
would be £45,000, and would contain about 50,000 yards of
water space, leaving 143,000 yards of land to let for buitding-
yards and graving docks, which your committee recommend
should be let in lots of about 10,000 yards each, as required.
This would give fourteen good building-yards, and at the mini-
mum rate of Bd. per yard would produce an annual revenue of
.e 4,766.

After a few remarks io commendation of their plan, the
report proceeds :
•` Your committee, therefore, recommend that they be au-
thorised at once to enter into nego7iation with the dock com-
mittee for the purpose of making this land available, and to
take steps to ascertain what parties would be desirous of taking
yards. They also recommend that such !reductions be made
in the rents of the present tenants of the Corporation as the
Council may, under all the circumstances, think prudent, and

that steps be taken to render the land, now in the hands of Mr.
Royden and others, at the west side of Queen's dock, as com-
modious as possible, no expense in such case being incurred
without the sanction of the Council being first obtained."

Mr. Alderman DOVER wished the prayers of the various
memorials presented on the subject to be read.
Mr. HORSFALL (the deputy-mayor) said the memorials
had already been read, but if the Council wished, they
could be read again.
Mr. Alderman DOVER did not wish them to be read at
length, but merely that they should be enumerated.
The DEPUTY-MAYOR said they werp not then in the
room, butthe Town -clerk would send for them, if necessary.
Mr. Alderman DOVER enumerated the several memo-
rials which had been presented to the Council on the sub-
ject, which were from the shipbuilders, the shipowners,
the ship-carpenters, and others.
Mr. TOBIN said the report which had just been read
contained so full
-an account of the views of the memorial-

so Tres.

ists, and was 1 in the minds of the members of the
council, that he did not think it requisite to have the me-

so full an exposition Of the subject, that it might suffice if

he (Mr. Tobin) were to content himself with merely
moving the adoption of the report ; but there were various
reasons which would induce him to enter more fully into
the subject than he was in the habit of doing. Whilst,
therefore, on the one hand he was anxious to lay before the
council such details connected with the subject as would
enable them to come to a sound and just conclusion ; on the
other he felt anxious to claim their indulgence,lest the great
interest should suffer from his feeble advocacy. He was
however, happy to find that not only were the Council
alive to the importance of • but-

_ tne subject, but having
been each furnished with a copy of the evidence laid be-
fore the Committee, be believed they had made them-
selves fully acquainted with it. The Committee, in their
investigations, found that there were nine ships building
in Liverpool, occupying yards to the extent of from 2.000

. .
square yards to 5,000 or 6,000 square yards, at a rental of
from ls, 3d. to Is. 6d. per yard. He found that, during
the year 1849, there were 2374 tons of shipping built,
whilst during the present year there had been 3.164 tons

already launched, and it was expected that before the end
of the year there would be about 700 tons more launched ;
but the ship-builders were of opinion that they would have
considerable difficulty in maintaining their present
position. He held in his hand a statement of the vessels
built in Liverpool during the last thirty years. He was
not able to procure a statement of what had been done
previous to that period, but he believed that before the
-19°1

year 18.,, more vessels had been built than since that pe-
riod. The speaker then alluded to a statement in the
Morning Chronicle which he said was founded on mis-
takes, as it contained the tonnage of such vessels as the
Bentinck, the Hindostan, and those belonging to the City
of Dublin Company, which, although built here, were
not registered in Liverpool, and hence the falling off in
the shipbuilding trade was greater than was represented.
They would find in the evidence given by Mr. Wilson that
he condemned the system of public graving docks as inju-
rious to the shipbuilding trade of the port. He said the
shipbuilding was now almost entirely carried on by

apprentiees-. He said it was now a mere auxiliary to the
repairing business ; that when he carried on business at
the north end he employed double the number of journey-
men in his yard for ten :years of all the other ship-
builders, and where he had one apprentice, he had half a
dozen journeymen. Thus it was proved, that while
Liverpool had been going down, Hull, Bristol, and other
ports, had been making giant strides, and in the Clyde
vessels had been built superior to anything in the world.
It was, therefore, manifest, whilst Liverpool had been
inert, other ports had been exerting themselves to the
utmost, and had acquired a pre-eminence which would
require the greatest skill, together with all the advantages
which could be afforded, to compete with them. From
statements he had obtained, he found that in Sunderland
the number of vessels built in 1849, as compared with
1834, was just four times the amount ; that from 1834 the
shipbuilding trade had gradually (except in 1843) gone on
increasing. He then read the following:—
Number of vessels and tons built at Sunderland.
From 14th April, 1834 Ships. Tons. Tons.

Average.
„ 1835.. 98.. 26134.. 2663 each.. 1843.. 85.. 21377
30th „ 1836.. 114.. 27703.. 243 ..1844
„ 1837.. 128.. 32342.. 252§ .. 1845
„ 1838.. 180.. 43512.. 2422-9 „ .. 1846
„ 1839.. 247.. 59441.. 2401 „ 1847..148..46901

~ 1840.. 251.. 64446.. 2564-5 „ 1818..142..37878
~ 1841.. 246.. 62654..2541 „ .. 1849..155..44333
The increase had been exceedingly rapid, and far surpassed
any other port in this country. He found that in 1849
the number of vessels built in this country was only just
one-half of what they built in the United States, so that
it was not only of local but of national interest that every
facility should be afforded to the trade. The speaker re-
ferred to the following statement :

Number and tonnage of vessels built in the United Kingdom
Sailing Vessels. Steamers. Toial.
Ships. Tons. Vessels. Tons. Ships. Tons.
1815 .... 783 .. 112336 .. 65 .. 10894 .. 853 .. 123230
1846 .... 732 .. 109394 .. 77 .. 15956 .. 809 .. 125350
1847 .... 830 .. 129664 103 .. 16170 .. 833 .. 145834
1848 733 .. 107218 .. 114 .. 15334 847 122552

1849 .... 662 .. 105455 .. 68 .. 12498 .. 730 .. 117953
On comparing the statements which he should lay
before them, they would see that though Liverpool pos-
sessed the advantage of having timber and iron cheap as
compared with other ports, so as to render shipbuilding
a profitable occupation, it was less than at other ports.
The mistaken policy of the Dock Committee was another
cause ; the appropriation of the margin of the river for
docks, instead of taking them from the eastward, incom-
modious yards, high rents and taxes, together with fre-
quent removals, had all produced their effects. With
regard to graving docks, he considered any plan fatal
without private graving docks, but he would not do away
with the public ones. He regretted also to find from the
evidence of the men that there was no more work for
them now than in 1844. It had been stated, with some
truth, that most of the repairs had been done in other
ports, which partly arose from the want of a good under-
standing between the masters and men. After some ob-
servations respecting the accommodation of the timber
trade, which required land for that purpose at the south
end, the speaker gave the following table :
Timber imported from the Baltic and British America into