SERVANTS' REGISTRIES. See APPENDIX II.
SEWERS.—It is important to note the difference between a sewer and a drain ; sewers are under the control of the local authorities, while the occupier or owner of the premises is responsible for the drains. Such is the effect of section 13 of the Public Health Act, 1875, which runs as follows :— " All existing and future sewers within the district of a local authority, together with all buildings, works, materials, and things belonging thereto, except —(1) Sewers made by any person for his own profit, or by any company for the profit of the shareholders ; and (2) Sewers made for the purpose of draining, preserving, or improving land under any local or private Act of Parliament, or for the purpose of irrigating land ; and (3) Sewers under the authority of any commissioners of sewers appointed by time Crown, shall vest in and be under the control of such local authority. Provided that sewers within the district of a local authority which have been or may hereafter be con structed by or transferred to some other local authority or by a sewage board or other authority empowered under any Act of Parliament to construct sewers shall (subject to any agreement to the contrary) vest in and be under the control of the authority who constructed the same or to whom the same has been transferred." The definitions of the terms appear in section 4 of time same Act. " Drain ' means any drain of and used for the drainage of one building only, or premises within the same curtilage, and made merely for the purpose of communicating therefrom with a cesspool or other like receptacle for drainage, or with a sewer into which the drainage of two or more buildings or premises occupied by different persons is conveyed.
" 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 ;he management of roads and not being a local authority under this Act." But by section 19 of the Act of 1890 builders are partially prevented from making one drain serve two or more houses, so that the liability therefor is shifted to the local authority. The section runs as follows :—" (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 41 of the Public Health Act, 1875 (relating to complaints as to nuisances 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 from 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 purpose of this section the
expression drain' includes a drain used for the drainage of more than one buildi ng." Restrictions on the use of sewers.—No one, under pain of a penalty, may cause a building to be newly erected over any sewer of an urban authority ; or cause a vault, arch, or cellar to be newly built or constructed under the carriage-way of a street. Penalties are also imposed on persons who cause injurious matters to flow into public sewers. Sections 16 and 17 of the Act of 1890 are as follows :— 16.—(1) It shall not be lawful for any person to throw, or suffer to be thrown, or to pass into any sewer of a local authority or any drain communicating therewith, any matter or substance by which the free flow of the sewage or surface or storm water may be interfered with, or by which any such sewer or drain may be injured ; (2) Every person offending against this enactment shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £10, and to a daily penalty not exceeding twenty shillings. 17.—(1) Every person who turns or permits to enter into any sewer of a local authority or any drain communicating therewith (a) any chemi cal refuse ; or (b) any waste steam, condensing water, heated water, or other liquid (such water or other liquid being of a higher temperature than 110° F.), which, either alone or in combination with the sewage, causes a nuisance or is dangerous or injurious to health, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £10, and to a daily penalty not exceeding £5. (2) The local authority, by any of their officers either generally or specially authorised in that behalf in writing, may enter any premises for the purpose of examining whether the provisions of this section are being contravened, and if such entry be refused any justice, on complaint on oath of such officer, made after reasonable notice in writing of such intended complaint has been given to the person having custody of the premises, may, by order under his hand, require such person to admit the officer into the premises, and if it be found that any offence under this section has been or is being committed in respect of the premises, the order shall continue in force until the offence shall have ceased or the work necessary to prevent the recur rence thereof shall have been executed. (3) A person shall not be liable to a penalty for an offence against this section until the local authority have given him notice of the provisions of this section, nor for an offence committed before the expiration of seven days from the service of such notice, provided that the local authority shall not be required to give the same person notice more than once.