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Legislature has thrown upon Sanitary Authorities the onus to prove that a
drain of a private house carrying drainage from beyond the premises was and
is a drain and not a sewer, but the Legislature has never given Sanitary
Authorities the only means of proof, namely, that of enforcing the provision
of a plan of the drainage of the premises, so that at the present moment
Sanitary Authorities are paying very heavily for the oversight of the Legislature,
and it is only equitable that the peccant Legislature should relieve
Sanitary Authorities from the false position into which they have been led.
For this purpose a Bill is now before Parliament, and as it is short it may
be quoted in cxtenso with advantage.
A Bill to amend the Metropolis Management Act with respect to Sewers
and Drains.
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the
advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as
follows:—
1.—In the construction of the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, and
the Acts amending the same, the word "drain" shall be deemed
to apply to and include the subject matter specified in the 250th
Section of the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, and in the 112th
Section of the Metropolis Management Act, 1862, and also any drain,
whether constructed before the 1st January, 1856, or subsequently,
which has not been approved as a sewer by the Metropolitan Commissioners
of Sewers, or under Section 69 of the Metropolis
Management Act, 1855, and Section 45 of the Metropolis Management
Amendment Act, 1862, or under Sections 47 and 48 of
the latter Act.
2.—Any Local Authority may recover any expenses incurred by them
in cleansing, repairing or replacing any drain for draining any
group or block of houses, from the Owner or Owners of any
premises for the drainage of which such drain is or may be used in
such proportions; if there be more than one Owner, as may be
settled by the Surveyor of the Local Authority, or in case of
dispute by the London County Council.
Any such expenses may be recovered snmmarily in the same
manner as the expense of making and paving new streets are
authorised to be recovered under the Metropolis Management Acts.
Metropolis Management Acts Amendment.
*For the purpose of examining any such drain, or of doing any work
necessary for the cleansing, repair, or replacing of any such drain, a
Local Authority or their Surveyor or Inspector, or such other person
as they appoint, shall have the like powers as are contained in Section
82 of the Metropolis Management Act of 1855 in regard to drains.
*It is suggested the words in italics are unnecessary, having regard to the fact that Section 82
of the Act, 1855, is still in force with regard to drain and sewer.