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to any compensation whatever, and which right they are advised
does not exist. A formal notice was, therefore, in October last,
served upon each Board, requiring them to appoint an Arbitrator,
and subsequently a Mandamus was applied for and granted
by the Court of Queen's Bench. Although such was nominally a
success on the part of the applicants, the real question at issue remains
unaffected, and it is probable that no further proceedings will
be taken until the decision of a somewhat similar case (Chasemore
v. Richards) which is now before the House of Lords under appeal.
As at present decided, that case is in favour of the Boards of Works,
and it would be a matter of regret that the expense of a reference
to arbitrators to ascertain the amount of damage sustained should
be incurred, if it should be ultimately decided that the damage is
what is technically termed damnum absque injuria, or of such a
character as the Law will not recognise as conferring the right to
compensation.
The costs of the Metropolitan Board of Works in this suit, which
have been far heavier than those of this Board, will not, it has been
ascertained, be levied exclusively upon this district, but as they
have been incurred in settling a principle of the utmost importance,
they will be defrayed by a general rate, extending throughout the
Metropolis. This Board were prepared to urge the adoption, by the
Metropolitan Board, of this course, but finding that it had been
already determined on by them, any efforts towards its accomplishment
were, of course, unnecessary.
A question, which at one time threatened to take a somewhat serious
aspect, arose shortly after the excessive rains of October last, upon
the falling in of the Turnpike Road, in Lewisham Tillage, in several
places over the Sewers there. The roads being under the New Cross
Trust, the Trustees called upon the Board not only to make good
the damage which had been sustained, but also to undertake very
expensive works in concreting the Sewer all round, so as to prevent
the possibility of a recurrence of the accident. Immediately on the
subsidence of the waters, the Board caused a careful examination of
the Sewer to be made, and finding it to have been efficiently constructed,
and to be in a perfect state of repair, they felt bound to
repudiate all liability in respect of the road, and with the exception
of putting in a block of concrete (at a cost of about £3), at a point
near the Lion and Lamb Inn, they declined to meddle in any way
with the Sewer. An action was also commenced against the Board
by a Carrier, whose waggon had sustained some damage by getting
into one of the holes in the road, but this the Board determined to
resist, and it has not been proceeded with.
An application has been made on behalf of the millowners on
"the river, and the Kent Water-works Company, to the Board, to
construct a drain from the Black Horse Inn, in order to convey to