T. A W BOOKS July, 1902. FLOODING CAUSED BY OVERFLOW OF STREAMS LAND DRAINAGE ACT, 1847. A Floods Prevention Act is much wanted. As things now exist local thorities can exercise no supervision over streams unless they are connected with Le drainage of highways. Land-owners ignore all warnings, and householders LAWS ho suffer damage through flooding have to put up with their losses because the and Drainage Act, 1847, is not applicable to premises which are not embraced by he term "lands" in that Act. There appears to be no common law, obligation on one land-owner to cleanse nd scour, for the benefit of others, the channel of a stream which becomes silted up ("Hodgson v. York Corporation" (1873), 28 L.T., 836; “ Colchester Corporaion v. Brooke" (1845), 7 Q.B., 339; "Forbes v. Lee Conservancy," 4 Ex. D., 116), and it has been held that navigation authorities, even when they take tolls, are not liable for damage done by the overflowing of a river owing to natural obstructions, e.g., by a collection of weeds or from the omission to cut them Parret Navigation v. Robins," W. M. and W., 593). As early as 1225 the statute 9 Henry III., c. 15, declared that no one should be bound to bank and bound rivers except where such liability attached to tenure, and it was not till 1847 that the Legislature provided a new remedy for those whose lands are injured by floods. The Land Drainage Act, 1847, section 14, enacts that where the neglect of an occupant of lands to maintain or join in the maintaining of banks, or to cleanse and scour or join in the cleansing and scouring the channels of existing drains, streams or water-courses lying in or bounding the lands of such occupant shall cause injury to any other land, it shall be lawful for the owner or occupant of any land so injured by notification to the owner or occupant so neglecting to require him effectually to maintain such banks or cleanse or scour such channels or to join in effectually maintaining such banks or cleansing or scouring such channels of such drains, streams and water-courses. In case the defaulting owner neglects so to do, it shall be lawful for the occupant of the land to which such injury shall be caused, after the expiry of one month, to execute all necessary works for maintaining such banks or cleansing or scouring such channels, and the expenses so incurred are recoverable on complaint made to Justices. In "Finch v. Bannister (1908), 1 K.B., 485; 72 J.P., 73, affirmed by Court of Appeal (1908); 2 K.B., 441; 2 J.P., 203; 6 L.G.R., 534, it was decided the Act applied only to Jand improvement and land drainage. It is not applicable unless the ordinary drainage of land is impeded and injury thereto will result by obstruction in a stream; but Lord Alverstone thought that the special remedy given by the Act was not confined to land in a purely agricultural condition. RELATING TO WATERS, SEA, TIDAL, AND INLAND. INCLUDING RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF RIPARIAN OWNERS, AND TOLLS AND RATES THEREON. BY H. J. W. COULSON, B.A., OF THE INNER TEMPLE, ESQ., BARRISTER-AT-LAW, AND URQUHART A. FORBES, OF LINCOLN'S INN, ESQ., BARRISTER-AT-LAW, Author of "The Law relating to Savings Banks." SECOND EDITION. LONDON: SWEET AND MAXWELL, LIMITED, 3, CHANCERY LANE, PREFACE TO SECOND SINCE the publication of the "Law of Waters: Sea, Tidal, and Inland," in 1880, several Acts of Parliament relating to the various branches of law of which it treats have been passed. Of these the most important are the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1888, and the Thames Conservancy Act, 1894, which respectively consolidate previous legislation on the subjects to which they relate. Acts have also been passed for confirming the Conventions made in 1882 and 1887 between Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Holland, and France respecting the police of fisheries and the liquor traffic in the North Sea, and between Great Britain and the United States respecting fur seal fisheries in the Behring Sea; while provision has been made for the establishment of sea fishery boards in British waters by the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act, 1888. Fishery law in inland waters has been amended by the Salmon Fishery Acts of 1884 and 1886; the law relating to water supply by the Local Government Act, 1894, and the Public Health (London) Act, 1891; and the law relating to pollution by the Local Government Act, 1888, which empowers county councils to enforce the provisions of the Rivers Pollution Prevention Acts. There have also been numerous decisions of the Courts, some of which are of considerable importance, on the branches of the law treated of in their work, and the authors have therefore been induced to think that a new edition bringing the law relating to waters up to date may be of use to the profession and the public. 1, BRICK COURT, TEMPLE. July, 1902. H. J. W. C. U. A. F. |