The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-11-03 00:00:00

WATER SUPPLY

The standing orders never relax - and as the parlia-
mentary session approaches, the problem of how the town
to be adequately supplied with water assumes a higher
degree of importance. The necessity for action is urgent,
and the question must be decided.
The report of the late committee of the Town Council
was barren, as all general documents must be. It was
intended to be barren, for reasons that neLd no explana-
tion ; and we can scarcely justify, though we may pardon,
the impatient curiosity of the Journal to dive into details.

No doubt the committee have acted so as to best further
the solution of the question, having due regard to the
interests of the burgesses; and, for the present, we are
content with what they have said, giving them credit for
the best intentions.

We must, however, interpose with some observations
upon the relative merits of the several schemes said to be
under discussion. Two modes of supply are open to us.
One is the good old fashioned plan of wells and pumps, in
favour of which Mr. Gage and the Mail are unusually
zealous. The other is to impound the element from distant
sources, and then to bring it to Liverpool, where it is to be
delivered at a vast fall by means of agencies which modern
engineering renders easy, safe, and cheap. The first plan
is decidedly inadequate. In all respects it is inadequate;
besides, it would be the dearest, all points taken into con-
sideration. The other plan is by far the preferable. But,
as few plans escape opposition, and as competition leads
to comparative perfection, there are two sources suggested,
from which, upon this principle, Liverpool may obtain
the desired treasure. The first that we natice is what is
called " The Bala Lake Scheme ;" the collection of waters
from the hills drained by the Dee;. the second is to draw
the supply from the mountainous district contiguous to
Bolton.

Our sympathies are in favour of the Bala Lake Scheme,
as likely to be the simplest in practise, the best adapted
for the increasing demands of a growing population, and
the least liable to obstructive interference from interme-
diate claims and interested obstacles. Parliamentary-op-
position less dogged and less selfish is certain, than would
greet the Town Council if they sanction the Bolton plan,
though it would be folly to expect there would be no op-
position. These are a few of the reasons which may be
suggested as sufficient to justify a larger present expendi-
ture in the one case than would be necessary in the other;.
and when to them is added the further fact that from one
source the supply is inexhaustible arid the other limited,
it is obviously a most mistaken policy not to select the
Bala Lake scheme, merely because it is open to one ad-
verse observation.

The Parliamentry notices, however, must appear in a
few days; and without engaging in the merely personal
questions of engineers and committee, upon which the
Journal has enlarged, one or two independent reasons
may be urged why Mr. Hawkesley's plan of sending us
water from Bolton should not be sanctioned.

In the first place this plan, as we understand it—and we
believe we are right—is a somewhat improved, and per-
haps enlarged, modification of one which the same Mr.
Hawkesley projicted for the supply of Manchester, in Oc-
tober, 1845, and which in July of the present year was,
upon its merits, withdrawn from a committee of the
House of Commons. Whether that will suit Liverpool
which was supposed to be inadequate for Manchester, we
shall not determine, though we have a strong opinion upon
the subject with which we need not trouble the reader now.
By this plan, which is identical, nearly, with what is said
to be before the committee of the Town Council, it was
proposed to drain 4400 acres of a precipitous district,
about 1600 feet above the sea, near Bolton. The yield was
calculated at about 4/ millions of gallons per diem.
which were to be impounded in the Turton and Entwistle'
reservoir—an artificial basin belonging to a private body
of millowners, who are styled "commissioners." This
reservoir was to be enlarged considerably, the water was
then to be conveyed to Manchester by pipes, part of
which passed upon a railway. It was, however, admitter'.
that taken alone, without the aid of the existing water
company at Manchester, the supply would not be equiva-
lent to 20 gallons per diem per head. This was fatal.
But in great works there are often jobs, small or great,
according as there is opportunity or want of vigilance.
Before the water could be delivered in Manchester, there
was a large body of mill-owners, who were to be compen-
sated for the abstraction of waters from their ponds;
coal-owners, who had to be indemnified ; and the proprie-
tors of falls on several streams, two of which we recollect
are called the Wayoh and the Whittlestone-head brooks,
who demanded compensation in the shape of annual rent.
These formidable items told upon the estimate, and there
was no security for sufficiency of supply. But something
more must be mentioned. The principal parties who
proposed to be so patriotic and sanatory towards Man-
chester had another object, quite disinterested, of course.
They formed themselves into a public Joint Stock
Company. The Reservoir Commission was found not to
pay. It was in debt and mortgaged. Mr. Hardcastle,
one of the Commissioners, was Chairman of the Joint
Stock Company, and he had £lO,OOO secured on the
reservoir, of which sum it was difficult toobtain the interest.
This gentleman, also, was the owner of the land, which
it was proposed to take for the enlargement of the resorvoir;
and in his character of a mill-owner, he had £297 per
annum to pay for his share of the waters. It was
proposed by the bill, and would, no doubt, have been
enacted, that the Reservoir Commissioners should transfer
themselves and their property to the new company ; that
Mr. Hardcastle's mortgage and all other liabilities should
be undertaken ; and lastly, that the millowners who filled
their boilers with water from the reservoir, and paid for
it, should for ever afterwards be supplied for nothing.
Hardcastle would thus have obtained the best price
for his land ; the security for his mortgage would have
been improved ; and he with others released from a con-
siderable obligatory annual charge. The interest of this
gentleman in the new company ought to be known. He
signed the deed for no less than £77,500, or somewhere
about one-fifth of the whole capital. But, as we said,
the scheme was defeated; and the Corporation of Man-
chester, who vehemently opposed the bill, together with
the Manchester and Salford Waterworks Company, were
the means of eliciting these somewhat important facts.
Now, it is utterly impossible that any water can be
brought from Bolton without some arrangement of an
expensive character with the many great interests which
have claims upon the drainage from those hills. But
having failed in Manchester, it may readily be understood
that the security of the Corporation of Liverpool would
be jumped at. Mortgages on concerns not over prospe-
rous, moor land, and capital sunk in the driving of cotton
mills, and the replenishment of ponds for bleacheries and
print-works, we hope are understood here. The com-
mittee of the Town Council are doubtless " wide awake," i
es Lord Brougham said when a noble lord charged him
with being asleep during one of the late Corn Law debates.
The Bala Lake scheme is not liable, at all events, to
such objections as attach to the Bolton plan. Let it be
remembered that these compensations, and mortgages,
and releases would for ever prevent the possibility of
cheap water, even if the supply were adequate. The
abundance of the supply from the hills of Bolton is even yet
doubtful. At all events, most satisfactory explanations
must be given before we, as independent members of the
Liverpool press, can permit the burgesses to be saddled
with a scheme which at present appears, if not impossible,
most imprudent and ineffective.

ACCIDENTAL DEATH ON BOARD SHIP.—An inquest
was held yesterday before Mr. Curry, on view of the 1
body of John Hughes, a rigger, 69 years old. Deceased
fell from the fore-topmast rigging of the ship Diadem, ly-
ing
in the Victoria Dock, on Friday morning. He fell on
the deck, and the back part of his bead was broken in.
Deceased was taken alive to the Northern Hospital, but
died next day. Verdict, " Accidental death."
RE-OPENING OF THE SCHOOLS AT CREWE,— On
Friday evening last, the much-esteemed good folks at
Crewe celebrated the re-opening of their handsome
school-rooms by a public tea party, at which upwards
of three hundred people, men, women, and children en-
joyed themselves, and if uproariousness is a proof of
enjoyment, they were superlatively happy. The Rev.
Walter Butler presided, and addressed the audience on
the subject of education, and was followed by the Rev.
Mr. Cooper, rector of Coppenhall. After the addresses
they adjourned to the boys' school where Mr. Andrews,
of Liverpool, amused them for an hour with his phantas-
magoria. These schools have been rebuilt on a larger
scale, the former rooms being too small.
INQuEsT.—Yesterday, an inquest was held before the
borough coroner, on view of the body of John Connolly,
aged 28 years. On Saturday week, deceased was ad-
mitted into the workhouse, and placed in the medical
ward. He complained of the bowel complaint, and also of
soreness in his left side, adding that the police had
killed him ; that he was drunk in Dale-street, and that an
officer bad struck him with his baton." He died on Tues-
day last. The house-surgeon at the Workhouse observed
in deceased symptoms of delirium tremens when be was
admitted, and on a post-mortem examination could disco-
ver no marks of injury on the body. He had no doubt
but that he had died from delirium tremens, brought on
by excessive drinking.—Verdict accordingly.
Irtisif SOCIETY.—The anniversary of this society will
be held, we perceive, on Sunday next and following days.
We are glad to find that the interest felt on behalf of this
excellent society continues unabated. Its object, as our
readers are aware, is to instruct the native Irish in the
Scriptures in their own language ; and in pursuing so
desirable an object, the society has been greatly blessed.
Numbers owe their knowledge of Divine Truth to
labours of this invaluable institution. For meetings and
sermons, &c., we beg to direct our readers to an adver-
tisement in our columns to-day. It will be observed that
the sermon at St. Barnabas' for the society, to be preached
by the Rev. Hugh M'Neile, will be delivered there in the
evening by that reverend gentleman, and not in the
morning, as announced ick tin printed bills.