View report page

85
will not amount to any large sum, as the Thames Conservancy Board, the present owners
of most of the Piers, will be willing to make arrangements with the Council that will in
any way facilitate the traffic of the Thames.
4. The Thames Conservancy Board are now, by their Act of Parliament, entitled to charge
Gd. a call for each vessel that calls at one of their Piers; but this power has never been fully
exercised by the Board. In all cases where there has been a great deal of traffic arising
from any source of trade, they have always been willing to negotiate a fixed price for a
series of calls, and such contracts have been invariably less than the statutory charge.
Their policy has been always in every way to assist the traffic in the river, though at a
loss to the Board. It has been estimated that if the full toll was charged it would amount
to about £17,000 per annum, so large is the amount of traffic which calls at the Piers.
5. Your Memorialists desire to point out to the Council that this excessive tax upon the
traffic in the Thames which uses the Piers, has a most detrimental effect upon those who
work on the riverside, and to the great inconvenience of the many trades and businesses
which are congregated on its banks.
6. For many years the Piers have been chiefly used by the Passenger Steamboats on the
river. These Steamboats are most convenient to the business men of London in
proceeding to Docks and Wharves which are on the banks at either side of the river.
They are also very much used in the summer time for pleasure traffic, and a great number
of watermen are employed in this manner. During the last few years the Railways,
Omnibuses and Tramways have competed with the River traffic ; before this came to
pass the Passenger Steamboats paid well and also paid regularly the tolls; but from this
and other causes the toll now is said to be so oppressive that there is a great probability
that the carriage of foot passengers will cease to be carried on by private enterprise, and
the public will be put to great inconvenience, many riverside workers will be thrown out
of employment, and residents and inhabitants of the riverside districts be deprived of a
means of communication which is very much valued by them, and the cheapness of which
makes it of the utmost importance and indispensable to the least wealthy of the community.
7. Your Memorialists are of opinion that this fatality will be best avoided by freeing the
Piers of the tolls. This charge being removed will be the means of stimulating the
passenger traffic, and will help to create a healthy competition which will greatly enhance
the comfort and convenience of the London public, who so largely use the river.