On entering the Council in 1868 I was placed upon the Watch Committee, and remained on that committee for fifteen years. The work was of a very routine character; we had, however, an excellent chairman in Mr. F. A. Clint, and I have never forgotten the lessons I received from him in the management of a committee, and how to get the proceedings of a committee passed by the Council. "Never start a hare" was his motto, "you never know how it will run, and the amount of discussion it may provoke." Another lesson which he taught me was always to take the Council into your confidence. "Tell them everything, and if you make a mistake own up to it;" and there can be no doubt that there is great wisdom in adopting this course. Deliberative assemblies are naturally critical and suspicious: but treat them with confidence and they will return it; once deceive them, or keep back what they are entitled to know, and your task thereafter becomes very difficult.
Mr. Alderman Livingston was the deputy-chairman, and was quite a character in his way. In personal appearance he resembled Mr. Pickwick, and his ways were essentially Pickwickian. In the selection of Mayors he was always very much in evidence, and he was before everything a Tory of Tories. Politics were his delight, and even when quite an old man he did not shirk attending the November ward meetings, where his oracular and often amusing speeches were greatly enjoyed by the electors.
At one period during the agitation against licensees of public-houses, the Watch Committee was composed of all the members of the Council with Mr. S. B. Guion as chairman; and the committee met in the Council Chamber, but a committee of this size was too unwieldy for administrative business, and the arrangement did not last long.
The Burning of the Landing Stage.
The original George's Landing Stage was replaced by a new one in 1874, and this was connected with the floating bridge and the Prince's stage, the whole forming one floating stage, 2,200 feet in length. On the 28th July, a few days after the completion of this work, I was attending the Watch Committee when word reached us that the landing stage was on fire. We could scarcely believe the report, as it was about the last thing we thought likely to be burnt. We hurried down to find the report only too true; huge volumes of dense black smoke enveloped all the approaches. The fire, commencing at the foot of the northern bridge leading to the George's stage, spread with great rapidity. The fire engines were brought on the stage and immense volumes of water were poured upon the burning deck, but the woodwork was so heavily impregnated with tar that the flames were irresistible. We worked all afternoon and all night, and in the end only succeeded in saving the centre of the stage at the foot of the floating bridge, for a length of about 150 feet. And this was only done by cutting a wide gap at either end, over which the fire could not leap. It was very arduous, trying work, as the fumes from the tar and creosoted timber were very nauseating. The portion salved was very valuable in preserving a place for the Birkenhead boats. The other ferries had to land and embark their passengers from temporary platforms and the adjacent dock walls.
The Water Committee.
In the 'seventies I joined the Water Committee, at a time when further supplies of water for Liverpool had become a pressing necessity. We had opened the Beloe "dry dock" at Rivington (so called because many people believed when this reservoir was being made it would never be filled), and it was felt that no further supply could be obtained from this source; nor could we rely upon any further local supply from the red sandstone, although Mr. Alderman Bennett made long speeches in his endeavour to prove that the supply from the red sandstone was far from being exhausted.
