Fro THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."j SIR,—Your correspondent "Z." (Spectator,
December 14th) does not very clearly state what purchase of docks from a private corporation he refers to. Possibly " many years ago" may mean 1884, when our municipality purchased the docks at Avonmouth and at Portishead, which were entering upon a course of suicidal competition with our city docks. But that, Sir, was by no means the beginning of the present state of affairs in Bristol. The first well-established connexion between our municipality and docks enterprise took place in A.D. 1247, when the Mayor, burgesses, and commonalty of Bristol, having purchased land from the Augustinian monks for the purpose, diverted the course of the river Frome, and cut a new trench, which for centuries served the purpose of a dock here. Whether there was an anti-Socialist party then who opposed, or whether the blessed word " municipalisation" was used by the supporters of that important work, I cannot say. But it is an historic fact that after the trench was completed there were those, the men of "la Redeliffe " to wit, who sought to avoid paying their due share of the cost, and the good offices of Henry III. as arbitrator were made use of to bring about an equitable arrangement. I am not concerned to praise or to blame our forefathers, but certain it is that Bristol throve exceedingly during the next hundred years or so, and furnished a contribution of men and of vessels for Edward M.'s wars in France that fell very little short of that from London. But the step taken six hundred and sixty years since has had its influence upon the chequered career of Bristol in the matter of dock manage- ment from that time to this. Our Corporation, which till four years ago was dominated by the Conservatives for sixty-eight years, has ever been chary of municipal trading, and we do not own either gas, water, or tramways. That seems to point to the fact that in the matter of municipal docks our Corporation was driven by force of circumstances to adopt the course it has. It may well be that our great dock enter- prise at Avonmouth, which we trust to see completed this year, will involve some charge upon the rates. But it will also undoubtedly add to the general prosperity of the city. Let me say in conclusion, Sir, that though a Liberal, I am in hearty agreement with "Z." in his opposition to municipal trading as a rule, and that I voted Conservative at the recent municipal election as a protest against any extension in that
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