The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-17 00:00:00

SPEECH OF J. BRAMLET-MOORE, ESQ.,
CHAIRMAN OF THE DOCK COMMITTEE,
ON THE SUBJECT OF DOCK EXTENSION.

. In compliance with a requisition addressed to the Dock
Committee, signed by 76 influential firms, urging that the
able speech of their Chairman, on Monday, the 19th ul-
timo, and " the valuable statistics contained therein (evi-
dently collected with great care and research) are deserv-
ing of preservation in a more lasting form than they can
possibly be in the pages of a newspaper," and requesting
that it should be printed in a more permanent shape, we
observe that a neat pamphlet, containing the speech in
question, corrected by the Chairman from the report in
the Standard, with some additional matter, has just been
published, with a map of the new docks. So valuable a
document, or one so interesting to the town, and so cre-
ditable to its author, has not for some time past issued
from our local press.
Amongst the additional matter of a statistical character
introduced is a table of the number of vessels employed
in the timber trade in Liverpool, which exhibits some
surprising results. The following is the table on which
Mr. Moore makes one or two remarks, and we have ap-
pended a few additional observations :

BRITISH AMERICA. BALTIC.
Year. Vessels. Tonnage. Vessels. Tonnage
1838..
1839 339 • • 170,591....
1840. . .
1841....
1842....
1843....
1844 369 189,414 51.... 14,144
1845 453...... 239,854 113....33,792
Thus you see (says Mr. Moore) that in 1844, when the
timber trade was said to have commenced its decline,
there were then 418 vessels, of 202,471 tons ; and in 1845,
the enormous number of 566 vessels, of 273,646 tons.
Now, this alone will shew the importance of the timber
trade, and how inadequately that trade has been accom-
modated in Liverpool. There has been an extraordinary
increase in several descriptions of timber. I will just
notice the Mahogany trade, to which attention was di-
rected, and particular accommodation afforded, some
four or five years ago, by the Dock Committee. The
number of logs imported since 1838 is as follows :
In 1838........10,918 logs, 1 In 1842........ 7,789 logs,
1839..

1840.. 7,214 1 1844

16,248 „

6,600 ~

28,840

I will now give you, for the last four or five years, the
increase for all descriptions of timber in pieces and feet.
I will take you back to 1838 :

In 1838..
1839..

15,000,000 In 1840 11,000,000
16,000,000 j 1841 16,000,000

Mr. Rathbone asked whether these were pieces?
Mr. Moore.—They are pieces and feet, by string or
sale measure. In callipers they would be about fifteen
per cent. more
In 1842
1843

9,000,000 I In 1814...... 24,000,000
17,000,000 I 1845...... 28,000,000

The most extraordinary increase exhibited in the first
table is that in Baltic timber, from 51 vessels, 14,144 ton-
nage, in 1844, to 113 vessels, 33,792 tonnage, or an in-
crease in one year, in the article of Baltic timber alone, of
19,648 tons, in 1845 ; and it is a fact worthy of remark,
as showing the great increase of the consuming power of
the country, that the price of Baltic timber, notwith-
standing the increased importations, was higher in 1845
than in the previous year. In the same period, the in-
crease of tonnage employed in the British American
timber trade amounted to 50,440 tons. In the entire
timber trade, therefore, we have an increase in 1845, over
that of the previous year, of about 70,000 tons, which is
considerably above three times the increase of the tonnage
of all kinds employed in the port of Bristol for the same
years, such total increase being only 21,076 tons. We
believe that this evidence of prosperity appeared so im-
portant to the Government that an application was made
from the Treasury for information confirmatory of the
correctness of the statement conveying it.

Another important item introduced in this pamphlet,
and which the chairman of the Dock Committee had not
received at the time of delivering his speech, is the export
of salt for the year 1845, which amounted to 472,146 tons,
against 429,131 in 1841, showing an increase of 43,015
tons on the year.

PETITION OF THE LIVERPOOL BRAZILIAN
ASSOCIATION FOR A RELAXATION OF THE
PROFIT BITORY DUTIES LEVIED UPON BRA-
ZILIAN SUGAR.

A petition has just been presented to the House of
Commons by this body, signed by their chairman, Mr.
J. Bramley Moore, praying to have their case considered
in the arrangements making for the reduction of Lnport
duties. The petitioners represent, in strong terms, the
injury which they sustain by the prohibitory duties upon
Brazilian sugar, and the retaliatory spirit which that coun-
try has adopted towards them. They urge their right to
a share in the ameliorations taking place in our commercial
code, and the advantages which would be conferred upon
the agricultural and other classes from whom protection
is being withdrawn, by cheapening the article of sugar, the
consumption of which has decreased since 1811 from 26
pounds per head to 16!., pounds in 1841. The question of
Brazilian being the produce of slave labour they consider
ought no longer to be mooted, now that we import
largely so many other articles similarly produced, and
that the West India planters themselves import the same
sugar for consumption, in order that they may have the
whole of their own crop available for the markets of this
country. They urge it also on account of vast accession
of trade which it would bring to the manufacturer, to
whom Brazil has been a large customer, and the advantage
which an increase of trade with that country will afford
to the shipping interest, and conclude by praying for the
importation henceforth into this country of Brazilian
sugar upon the same terms as any other foreign sugar.