New-York tribune., 1870-02-10
MIR. sWEEyY,S WBARvEs SCHEME.

An important bill to regulate the wharves
and piers of this city is given elsewhere. 1t
is sweeping in its requirements, and puts great
power and res possibility into the hands of five
new Commissioners (now called Board). The
main points are. briefly: Five Commissioners
are to be appointed by the Mayor who SHALL
under the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund,
have exclusive control of wharves, piers,
docks. land under water, and all that
properly pertains to the waterfront prop
erty owned by the city, to build, repair,
keep, regulate, lease, &c. They must prepare
plans and accept bids for improvements and
repairs; and. moro important, are required to
decide upon some comprehensive and uniform
plan for new work. This looks toward no less
than the grand scheme of Fernando Wood OF
stone piers, heavy sea-wall, and inclosed DOCKS
from the Battery to Harlem. The plans Sc
ccted are to be approved by the Commission
ers of the Sinking Fund, and they are to issue
bonds at not over S3,OOO,OOO year for
the necessary work. AS there are many
piers now leased or owned by pri-
vate parties, provision is made for
purchasing them, or in case owners refuse
to SELL forclby taking them under the State
poses. The Board is to have exclusive control
of leasing and regulating piers and docks, but
leases must be sold at auction to the highest
bidder for not more than ten years, with cove
nants of renewal. All the receipts from rents
and other sources must be paid into the City
Treasury. The annual expenses of the Board
are limited to s5O,0OO. Advertising is restricted
20 i've daily and five weekly papers
The bill is one of great Importance, and its
leading purpose is prima tacie what merchants
have been asking for every year since 1910.
But whether it is desirable to put the entire
control of thirty miles of water front into the
hands of Peter b. Sweeny, with no better Sc
curty than that his tool in the Mayors office
may turn out corrupt Commissioner and put
in one still more corrupt, may well be ques-
toned. The wharves, as they are and have
been for half a century, are disgrace to the city,
1t is upon this popular confession that the
engineers of this bill hope to make their mag
nfcent grabs. The construction OF piers at
will. the everlasting work of dredging and re-
pairing, the unquestioned power to fix and
change rates of whaffage-in other words, to
strike" the vast mercantile interests, not
only of this metropolis but of the whole world
arc trusts not to be lightly placed in the
hands of such men as we should naturally ex
pect by Mayor Halls carrying out the dictam
of Mr.. Sweeny.
But the bill is not yet out of Committee, and
there will be week, we understand, for
the people to study its magnificent proportions.
Any opposition that merchants or Others may
choose to make, should be done at once; for
the system this Winter, in important matters, Is
to keep Il bill as private as possible III Com
mittee to the last moment, put in the finish
ing (stealing) clause while it is on the road to
the Speakers desk, and rush it through the
third reading with whip and spur. This bill
is bad enough as it is but we shall not be
surprised, if it passes, to find 1t even more
grasping when it appears in the Session Laws.