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

TUESDAY MORNING, OCT. 6, 1846.

We are quite happy to meet our contemporary,
the Albion, 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 hand
£3g1,129 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
:Ind 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 . than such a statement as
the foregoing. Here we Lave the cost of the river wall
central works' carried off as expenditure on new works,
whereas it is merely a replacement of the old. The ma-
terial is certainly new, but it is as much a part of the
yearly disbursements of the Dock Estate as clearing out
the mud, and ought to be 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." _ _

Had the Dock 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 old works," but are works undertaken by the
Dock Committee which, so far from being "as much
yearly disbursements as dealing 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 be shown :
" Surplus revenue we take to be the balance of the
current receipts over the current expenditure, and the
introduction of items of stock and banking accounts only
complicate any statement from 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
ordinary expenditure, he reduces the surplus 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 R114,709 15 8
„ dutieson goods,
inwards and
outwards.... 98,714 0 6
„ duties from

nuities £14,766 1G 6
„ Dock Policees-
tablishment.. 12,671 6 7
„ disbursements.

on account if
light-houses,
&c. 13,632 17 10
disbursementsf

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 6
„ trustees of the
late Duke of
Bridgewater.. 9,181 0 0
„ llarrington
Docks 2,244 4 9
„ rent of premi-
ses, &c 4,957 5 10

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
surplus reve-
nue

£256,961 13 6

£256,961 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
with the money, and an increased amount of mate•
rials on hand. So with the banker's balance. We
owe more to the bondholder, but 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, and we must tell our contemporary
plainly, that the principle of his statement, as an
account shewing " 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, shewn 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. 11d. 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

£337,336 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 6s. Bd.r-all that
the 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 .............. £26,152 9 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
any idea of exaggerating it, we might have fairly ap.