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the former system, such system is a private drain,
repairable by the owner or owners of the houses.*
At present the onus of proof that any given system
is a private drain rests on the local'authority, and
as most of such combined systems were constructed
before 1855, a search of the records of the Commissioners
of Sewers is necessary before disputing
the case. These records are in the possession of
the London County Council, fill many volumes,
and are without indices. To trace any given case,
the volumes of plans have to be gone through, and
then the minutes searched for the resolution. A
record may be found in one or other places, or,
more commonly, in neither.
A Conference of Delegates from the Metropolitan
Vestries and Local Boards was convened by the
Holborn Board of Works, and a deputation from the
Conference attended before the Main Drainage Committee
of the London County Council. In the end a
Bill was drafted by the County Council for presentation
before Parliament, by the provisions of which
every drainage system which had not been by express
order of the local authority constructed, or taken
over, as a public sewer, would be a private drain,
#In the extra-metropolitan districts a further complication is created by
the 19th sec. of the Public Health Amendment Act, 1890, whereby the
"drain" receiving drainage from two or more houses belonging to different
owners is a private drain, whilst the definition clauses of the Public Health
Act, 1875, declare such a drain (without any conditions as to ownership) to be
a public sewer.