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turbance of streets for the purpose of enabling Companies or
Persons purveying electricity to lay mains and otherwise
carry on their operations. No one has a right to break up a
public street without statutory authority, and even the consent
of the local authority will not prevent an indictment for
an unauthorised disturbance of the soil of a street. Hence
the necessity for legislation to authorise the operations of
Electric Lighting Companies so far as laying underground
mains is concerned. Wires may be carried overhead if the
•consent of the owners of the property over which they pass
(not only to which they are attached) is obtained. In the
case of the Wandsworth District Board v. United Telephone
Company, the Court of Appeal, in 1884, held that the road
authorities have no property in the space above the streets, so
it would appear that, unless the wires are dangerous or
interfere with the use of a street as a street, the local
authority have no power to prevent wires being stretched
across a street, or to enforce the removal of such wires. When
the Electric Lighting Act was passed in 1882, however, the
Government evidently held the opinion that local authorities
did possess such a power, and no power was taken to prevent
the erection of overhead wires, although by section 14 of the
Act it was expressly enacted that no power was thereby conferred
for placing any wire “along, over, or across any street
without the express consent of the local authority.”
The main object of the Electric Lighting Acts may therefore
be said to be to confer upon persons authorised to supply
electricity power to lay mains underground. This power
may be obtained in either one of two ways, viz. (1) a licence,
or (2) a provisional order.
A licence may be granted by the Board of Trade for any
period not exceeding seven years, and is renewable from time