The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-04-14 00:00:00

£291,000, being at the rate of £702 per share, including
the bonded debt of £21,000. This was thought very
liberal on the part of the Corporation. He (Mr. Tinne)
hou ght the meeting would agree with him that it was
liberal, when they recollected that within a few weeks
from that time the price of their she es in the market was
only £652. (Hear, hear.) This off,r the company had
refused to accede to, on the ground that it was much be-
low the value of their property. (Hear.) He (Mr. Tinne)
was not aware of the exact value put upon the property of
the company, but he believed it was not much below what
Mr. Reay had stated, though it was proposed in the new
bill to appropriate new shares to their own proprietors
at £-176 only. (Hear, hear.) On this question, he must
say that the Corporation had not been at all backward,
but had endeavoured to obtain possession of the works at
a fair price to both parties, and he 'Bought the existing
companies were entitled to considerable credit for having
so long supplied the town with water when the authorities
had neglected or refused to do so. (Ciseers.) Without,
however, entering into the question, as to whether it
was right or wrong for the Corporation, in forcer
days, to supply the town with water, he might be
permitted to say that the system upon which the existing
companies had proceeded was very bad ; and in conse-
quence of the engineering skill now available, he thought
great improvements might be made, and considerable
expense saved in procuring a necessary and constant sup-
ply. (Loud cheers.) He was also glad that allusion had
been made by the last speaker to the quality of the water,
for that was almost as important as the quantity. At
present they had most excellent water supplied- out of the
earth, but it was of a most extraordinary hard description.
It was very pleasant to drink, but when it came to be
used for domestic or manufacturing purposes, the extra
quantity of soap and soda which was required added very
considerably to the expense of using it ; and it was a well
ascertained engineering fact that the deposit of " fur" at
the bottom of boilers, which was so destructive of the
iron, and which was occasioned by the lime or chalk con-
tained in hard water, might be almost, if not entirely,
obviated by the use of a softer water. The objects to be
sought after, therefore, should be soft water, of a sufficient
quantity, and at as cheap a rate as possible. It was also
essential that they should not only seek for a supply for
the present day, but they must look ahead, for every
census showed an enormous increase in the population of
the town, and no one could well calculate what it would
be twenty years hence. It might, however, be safely
inferred, that it wonld not fall short of 690,000, and
their resources ought to be such that without any great
additional expense in erecting new works, they would be
enabled to provide for centuries an ample supply of water
for the increasing population of the town, by a cheap
and comoaratively small extension of their establishment.
Under these circumstances he trusted the. attention of
the public would be directed to the subject ; that they
would not only watch narrowly the conduct of the present
companies, but also the conduct of the authorities, to see
that they got not only the required quantity, lout that it
was of the very best quality, arid at the lowest practi-
cable price. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. WALTHEW then proposed the adoption of a
petition to parliament on the subject, to be signed by the
mayor on behalf of the meeting.
The motion was seconded by Mr. TINNE, and carried
unanimously.
Mr. BRAMLEY MOORE then proposed the thanks of
tne meeting to the mayor, for his impartial conduct in
the chair, which was carried by acclamation.
His WORSHIP in acknowledging the compliment said,
he trusted they would be successful in accomplishing the
object they had in view. (Loud cheers.)
The meeting then senarated.