View report page

55
PUBLIC HEALTH (SEWERS AND DRAINS) BILL.
The main object of the above-mentioned Bill was to amend the definitions of
"sewer" and "drain" in the Public Health Act.
Under these definitions any drain used for the drainage of more than one house
is technically a sewer, and, therefore, repairable by the Local Authority. This it will
be seen may frequently involve interference by the Local Authority with private
property, and, moreover, throws upon the whole body of ratepayers the cost of
repairing drams which are in all respects private, and are of no use to the public in
general.
The Public Health Acts Amendment Act, 1890, sought to overcome the difficulty
by enacting that where two or more houses belonging to different owners are connected
with a public sewer by a single private drain, the Local Authority may call upon the
owner of the houses to put the drain in repair.
This Section did not meet with the success anticipated, as among other things it
only applied to houses belonging to different owners, and to drains conveying sewage
to the public sewer. Drains conveying sewage to cesspools, for instance, did not come
within its scope.
Briefly, the main effects of the provisions of the Bill under review are that a drain
shall be one constructed on private land by the landowner or builder, and that a sewer
shall be one that has either been constructed by the Local Authority or has been laid
along a public highway. An important exception is that when a drain has been
constructed by a builder or landowner along a private street, i.e., a street not repairable
by the Local Authority, the drain is to be a sewer provided that it has been constructed
to the satisfaction of the Local Authority.
Whether the Bill would have attained its object is a matter for legal consideration,
but some clear legislative enactment on the lines indicated is urgently needed.
Owing to the pressure of Government business, this Bill, which was introduced by
a private member, did not get beyond the first reading.
I might perhaps point out that the difficulty has not been so acute in the City of
London, since cases in respect of which any doubt exists are always dealt with under
Section 61 of the City of London Sewers Act, 1848, the effect of which is that in all
cases wherever any house or building situate within the City shall at any time be found
not to be drained by a sufficient drain to the satisfaction of the Corporation, it shall be
lawful for the Corporation to require the owner to construct and make a covered drain
to the nearest common sewer.
SMOKE ABATEMENT BILL, 1914.
The existing law on the smoke question, which forbids the emission of "black
smoke in such quantity as to be a nuisance," throws upon the Local Authority the
onus of proving that the smoke is "black." It is this provision that has been a
formidable impediment to many a prosecution in cases where a very real nuisance has
been committed, but where the colour of the smoke has not been sufficiently deep to
justify the application of the adjective "black."