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"Sewer" includes sewers and drains of every description, except drains to which
the word "drain" interpreted as aforesaid applies, and except drains vested in or
under the control of any authority having the management of roads and not being
a local authority under this Act.
It is clear from this that what is termed in London a combined drain is a
sewer when situated outside the Metropolis.
Section 41.—On the written application of any person to a local authority,
stating that any drain, watercloset, earthcloset, privy, ashpit, or cesspool on or
belonging to any premises within their district is a nuisance or injurious to health
(but not otherwise), the local authority may, by writing, empower their surveyor or
inspector of nuisances, after twenty-four hours' written notice to the occupier of
such premises, or in case of emergency without notice, to enter such premises, with
or without assistants, and cause the ground to be opened, and examine such drain,
watercloset, earthcloset, privy, ashpit or cesspool. If the drain, watercloset, earthcloset,
privy, ashpit or cesspool on examination is found to be in proper condition,
he shall cause the ground to be closed, and any damage done to be made good as
soon as can be, and expenses of the works shall be defrayed by the local authority.
If the drain, watercloset, earthcloset, privy, ashpit or cesspool on examination
appear to be in bad condition, or to require alteration or amendment, the local
authority shall forthwith cause notice in writing to be given to the owner or occupier
of the premises requiring him forthwith or within a reasonable time therein specified
to do the necessary works, and if such notice is not complied with, the person to
whom it is given shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding ten shillings for every
day during which he continues to make default, and the local authority may, if
they think fit, execute such works, and may recover in a summary manner from the
owner the expenses incurred by them in so doing, or may by order declare the same
to be private improvement expenses.
Public Health Acts Amendment Act, 1890.
Section 19.—(1) Where two or more houses belonging to different owners are
connected with a public sewer by a single private drain, an application may be made
under Section forty-one of the Public Health Act, 1875, (relating to complaints as
to nuisance from drains), and the local authority may recover any expenses incurred
by them in executing any works under the powers conferred on them by that
Section, by the owners of the houses in such shares and proportions as shall be
settled by their surveyor or (in case of dispute) by a court of summary jurisdiction.
(2) Such expenses may be recovered summarily or may be declared by the
urban authority to be private improvement expenses under the Public Health Acts,
and may be recovered accordingly.
(3) For the purposes of this section the expression " drain " includes a drain
used for the drainage of more than one building.
The Public Health Acts Amendment Act, 1890, is not a compulsory but an
adoptive Act, and any Sanitary Authority outside London adopting this Act
modifies the definition of the word "drain" as defined in the principal Act
before quoted. It will be observed that for the first time we here have
mentioned a "public sewer," and a" private drain." Is the inference that it
may be possible to have a private sewer, and. public drain ?
It will also be observed that there is no mention of combined drainage in
the sense conveyed by the Acts governing the metropolis as will be seen by
the following sections—