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Parliament for North St. Pancras, was approached, and was asked to take
charge of the Bill and to bring it before the House of Commons. Mr.
Dickinson kindly replied on the 1st February that he would be very happy
to take charge of the Bill.
The Bill was introduced into the House of Commons on the 5th
March by Mr. Dickinson and was read a first time.
The Bill is set out below in extenso:—
METROPOLITAN SEWERS AND DRAINS BILL.
MEMORANDUM.
The object of this Bill is to amend the state of the law relating
to combined drainage.
There are two kinds of combined drain, the "combined drain"
which in law is a "drain," and the "combined drain" which in law
is a "sewer." The former is repairable by the private owner; the
latter by the public authority.
In the opinion of builders, owners, and local authorities, combined
drains were originally constructed as drains, and were mutually
regarded as such until the retrospective case of Travis v. Uttley
(1893), the effect of which has been to convert thousands of drains,
which had been privately owned and privately maintained, into
sewers vested in the local authorities, and maintainable at the
expense of the ratepayers.
The state of the law has been described by the Lord Chief
Justice, who said in a recent decision, "It seems to me, as I have
before pointed out, to be essential that there should be some amendment
of the law upon this subject. The state of the authorities is
such that it appears to be impossible either to reconcile the various
decisions or to deduce from them any logical rule."
Several provincial authorities, notably West Ham, Croydon,
Carlisle, Leyton, Wood Green, Sheffield, etc., have been successful in
obtaining the powers which the Metropolitan local authorities ask for
by this Bill.