View report page

120
nuisance ought to see that that nuisance is properly
abated ; but on the other hand it is open to argument
whether the Inspectors could not be more
profitably employed if relieved of this duty.
Bye-laws to regulate the work of amendments
and alterations to existing drainage, &c., are still
wanted. The London County Council were approached
during the year by the Incorporated
Society of Medical Officers of Health and urged to
put in force their powers under Sec. 202 of the
"Metropolis Local Management Act, 1855," so as
to regulate these matters. The Council have
drafted a series of bye-laws, but there does not
appear to be any immediate prospect of their early
issue.
The question of "combined drains" has become
a very pressing one during the year. Two leading
cases were decided in the summer of 1895, viz.,
Kersliaw v. Taylor, and Florence v. The Vestry of
Paddington. The cases were not identical, but the
tenour of the decisions is the same. From them it
appears that if anyone, without notice to the local
authority, arrange or re-arrange the drains so that
two or more houses are connected to one system,
emptying into the public sewer, that system is
a "sewer," repairable by the local authority. If,
on the other hand, the local authority, either by
direct resolution or by implication through consent,
sanction a drainage system on lines identical with