and payment consideration polis, make such general or special orders as to them may districts, seem proper for the guidance, direction, and control of the of compenvestries of parishes and district boards in the levels, con- sation, &c. in struction, alteration, maintenance, and cleansing of sewers thereof). in their respective parishes or districts, and for securing the proper connexion and intercommunication of the sewers of the several parishes and districts, and their communications with the main sewers vested in the said metropolitan board, and generally for the guidance, direction, and control of vestries and district boards in the exercise of their powers and duties in relation to sewerage, and all such orders shall be binding upon such vestries and boards: Be it enacted, that whenever the said metropolitan board shall, in exercise of the said power, have ordered that any sewer or sewers vested in the vestry, district board, or other body (g) acting for any parish or (f) This provision enables the metropolitan board to direct the payment of a pecuniary consideration to any body having control over sewers where their works are made use of for the benefit of another parish or district-a power not contained in the original Act, but which seems just and equitable. As the area of the jurisdiction of the respective bodies is parochial only, and not according to natural drainage, occasions for the exercise of this power must frequently arise. (g) These words "other body," as here employed, can only refer to the local board of health of Woolwich, and as the exercise of the power is restricted to parishes and districts named in the schedules, the city of London is excluded from the operation of the clause. The 58th section prohibits the making of any new sewers within the metropolis by any body having control over sewers within the metropolis, without the previous approval of the metropolitan board, and the general intention of the Act is to render that board the paramount authority in matters of sewerage, and there seems no good reason why the city sewers should be exempted from this provision. It is worthy of remark, that one of the earliest examples of an arrangement very similar to that contemplated by this clause is presented in the case of a communication between the sewers of the Holborn and Finsbury divisions and those of the Corporation of London. By one of the local Acts of that commission, the 18 Geo. 3, c. 66, in consideration of the benefit accruing to the Finsbury division, St. Leonard, Shoreditch, and Norton Folgate, from the sewers of those localities being permitted to run into the sewers of N place comprised in the schedules of the firstly-recited Act, having control over the sewers in one parish, district, or part, shall, for the purpose of outfall or otherwise, be connected with any sewer or sewers vested in the vestry or district board of another parish, district, or part, or other body having control over the sewers in such parish, district, or part, it shall be lawful for the vestry, district board, or other body, for the drainage of whose parish, district, or part, such connexion shall be required, and at whose instance and request such order shall have been made, to execute all necessary works as well within their own parish, district, or part as within any other parish, district, or part which shall be specified in the said order of the metropolitan board for effecting such connexion: Provided that every communication to be made by any vestry, district board, or other body with any sewer out of their own parish, district, or part shall be made under the supervision and to the satisfaction of the board, vestry, or other body having control over such last-mentioned sewer; and where it shall appear to the said metropolitan board to be equitable and just, under the circumstances of the case, that any vestry, board, or other body so connecting their sewers with the sewers vested in another vestry, district board, or other body should pay such last-mentioned vestry, board, or body any compensation or remuneration, either in one sum or by yearly or other payments, for the use of their sewer, it shall be lawful for the said metropolitan board to order and direct payment of such compensation or remuneration accordingly, and the vestry, board, or other body to whom any such payment shall be directed to be made may recover the same from the vestry, board, or body directed by such order to make such payment, either by the city of London, the above-named commissioners were required to pay an annual sum of 1501. into the chamber of the city of London for ever. That sum was, it is believed, regularly paid by the Holborn and Finsbury commissioners, and by their successors, the metropolitan commissioners of sewers, to the Corporation down to the year 1855, when it ceased. action at law or before a justice of the peace in a summary manner. as to breaking up turn roads (a). XXXIII. The one hundred and fifty-seventh section of Regulations the firstly-recited Act is hereby repealed; and in lieu thereof be it enacted, that the metropolitan board of pike works, and any vestry or district board may, where necessary for the purpose of executing any work authorized by the recited Acts or this Act, open and break up any turnpike road under and subject to the restrictions and provisions hereinafter contained; that is to say, three days' previous notice, with a full description of any intended works, shall be left at the office of the commissioners or trustees of the road, and, except by the permission of the said commissioners or trustees, the traffic of the road shall not at one time be stopped or hindered along more than half of its width, nor, if the half left open be of less than the clear width of fourteen feet, along more than one hundred yards in length, and the party doing the works shall cause all openings in the road to be effectually secured and fenced, and affix and maintain lights during the night near to the place where the ground is open, so as to prevent accidents; and the said commissioners or trustees are hereby absolved from all liability in respect of any accident arising in consequence of such works; and the party doing the work shall re (a) The repealed section, 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, s. 157, vested in turnpike commissioners and trustees powers of an unnecessarily restrictive character, which, if arbitrarily exercised, might have opposed serious obstacles to the efficient and economical execution of drainage works. The alteration introduced by this provision is to substitute a three for a seven days' notice, and altogether to get rid of the former provision prohibiting any alteration, except by permission in the inclination of the road of more than one foot in sixty. Those restrictions are retained in the case of certain turnpike roads in and near the metropolis by the Local Government Act, 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 43; and some questions may arise as to which regulations are to prevail with respect to the opening, &c. of turnpike roads within the metropolis and within the jurisdiction of a local board of health. Plan, &c. store every road so opened or broken up to its original state as to surface and materials, and, in order to meet the future expenses consequent on the subsidence of materials newly filled in, shall pay to such commissioners or trustees, on demand, such sum as they shall require for such purpose, not exceeding 1s. for every superficial square yard, and, so far as the works affect the same, shall make good all drainage, paving of water channels, kerbs, or footpaths, and other matters and things connected with the maintenance of the road, and in default the surveyor of the said commissioners or trustees may cause the necessary work to be done; and in all cases of expense incurred by any such surveyor on the default of the party doing the works, such party shall pay such expense to the commissioners or trustees on demand. XXXIV. Where any works authorized by this or the recited Acts will interfere with any railway or canal, the board or vestry proposing to construct such works shall before commencing the same give notice in writing of their intention so to do to the company owning such railway or canal, and shall, together with such notice, deliver a plan and section showing the nature of such interference; and if within seven days after the receipt of such notice the company shall by writing, addressed to the board or vestry, object to the manner in which it is intended to interfere with such railway or canal respectively, on account of the probable interruption or endangering of the traffic thereon, the same works shall not be commenced; and it shall thereupon be referred to an engineer, to be appointed by the board of trade, on the application of either party, to determine the manner of executing the said works, and the determination come to by such engineer shall be binding on both parties. (b) The case of the North London Railway Company v. The Metropolitan Board of Works, 28 L. J. (N. S.) Ch. 909, is an authority that, under the 69th and 135th sections of the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, boards and vestries might enter private lands without notice in order to construct sewers. This clause restricts that right so far as concerns works interfering with railways and canals, and renders a notice necessary. way not to XXXV. Provided always, that it shall not be lawful Line of railfor any board or vestry to alter the level of any railway be altered. or canal, unless with the consent of the company owning the same respectively, or, if that be refused, with the consent of the board of trade; and provided also, that nothing in this Act contained shall take away or affect the right of any railway or canal company to compensation for the taking or injuriously affecting (c) of any land or property of such company, or for or by reason of the interruption of any traffic on their railway or canal, or for any damages, costs, or expenses which such company may be required to pay in consequence of such interruption. XXXVI. The inspectors of votes directed to be ap- Inspectors pointed under the firstly-recited Act for any parish, or, of votes to appoint where any parish is divided into wards, for any ward of umpire (d), a parish, may, before commencing the duties of their office under the said Act, appoint by writing under their hands an umpire; and in case the said inspectors shall be unable to agree upon or determine by a majority any matter which they are by the said Act required to determine, such matter shall be decided by the said umpire, and his decision in relation thereto shall be final and conclusive. (c) The compensation directed by the 135th section of the original Act, 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, is for "damage done." The expression "injuriously affecting" is the same as in the 68th section of the Lands Clauses Act, 8 Vict. c. 18. On the subject of compensation, see note (k) to sect. 135 of 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, ante. (d) See sect. 16 of the original Act, 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, as to the nomination of inspectors, and sects. 18, 19, and 22 as to their duties. This section does not seem to make it incumbent upon the inspectors to appoint an umpire. Where they have done so, the umpire's authority attaches when they cannot determine by a majority any question which they are required to determine. It does not appear to enable him to settle a question arising under the 19th section, which is still to be decided by lot. |