their interference with certain public, proprietary, and private sewers, waterworks, streams, navigations, and other public works, without consent, but saves the rights of local boards existing at the time of the passing of the Act.

Sect. 69. Requires, in cases not within the last clause, where the local board propose to execute works, that they should give notice to the parties interested under any local Act of parliament, and if they do not consent that the matter in difference be referred to arbitration.

70. Provides for the result of this arbitration and the action of the local board thereon.

71. Preserves the rights of persons authorized to navigate rivers or canals, or to take toll in respect thereof.

72. Enables corporations or commissioners, with consent of the local board, to alter sewers or other works.

73. Preserves the water rights of individuals or companies.

74. Enables questions arising under the previous sections to be referred to arbitration, and prescribes the questions to be decided.

75. Repeals part of 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, s. 84, and provides for the purchase of lands by the board by incorporating the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, by requiring them to publish notice of their intention in newspapers, serve notice on parties interested, and present a petition to the secretary of state, who may direct local inquiry to be made and issue a provisional order to be confirmed by a special public Act of parliament-and provides for the payment of the costs incurred by the secretary of state out of the general district rates.

76. Requires local board to report annually to the secretary of state, and publish the same in a newspaper.

Sect. 77. Repeals 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, s. 141, and enables a petition to be presented for the incorporation of an adjoining place, or a separation of a part of a district, or the repeal of a local Act dealing with public works, or exempting property from rating, or of any provisional order or any Act confirming the same, or the alteration thereof, to a secretary of state, who may direct inquiry and issue order thereon-requires consent to be obtained in certain cases, and provides for the testification thereof provides for the meeting and conduct thereat, and requires secretary of state to obtain a confirming Act of parliament-prohibits the validity of the order until confirmed, and enables parties to petition against the bill, and to appear and oppose it as a private bill.

78. Enables the local board to petition the secretary of state that the powers of borrowing already given to them in certain cases, and the term for repayment, may be extended-enables the secretary to make inquiry and issue provisional order, to be confirmed by Act of parliament.

79. Empowers the secretary of state to report to parliament annually on this Act, and to provide for its execution by appointing officers and clerks.

80. Confers upon any person directed to make inquiry the powers contained in 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, s. 121.

81. Renders the orders of the secretary binding and conclusive, and enables him to make orders for costs. 82. Makes certain exceptions in respect of the city of Oxford and the town of Cambridge.

THE

PUBLIC HEALTH ACT, 1848.

NOTE. The sections printed between asterisks have become superseded by the Local Government Act, and those sections which are printed between asterisks and are included in brackets have been repealed.

11 & 12 VICT. CAP. 63.

AN ACT FOR PROMOTING THE PUBLIC HEALTH. [31ST AUGUST, 1848.]

PREAMBLE AND INTERPRETATION OF WORDS.

"WHEREAS further and more effectual provision "ought to be made for improving the sanitary con"dition of towns and populous places in England "and Wales, and it is expedient that the supply of "water to such towns and places, and the sewerage, "drainage, cleansing, and paving thereof, should, "as far as practicable, be placed under one and the "same local management and control, subject (a) "to such general supervision as is herein-after pro"vided:" Be it therefore enacted, that this Act Parts to may from time to time be applied, in manner hereinafter provided, to any part of England and Wales, applied.

(a) The supervision which is here deemed advisable has been repudiated by the legislature and another substituted by the Local Government Act of 1858, post. See note on sect. 67, as to whether any parts of the Act except sect. 50 have a general operation.

с

which this

Act may be

Interpreta

Except the parts next hereinafter mentioned; (that is to say,) the city of London and the liberties thereof (b), the parts within the limits of certain commissions of sewers (c) bearing date at Westminster the 30th day of November in the year of our Lord 1847, also the parts within the limits of a certain other commission of sewers bearing date at Westminster the 4th day of December in the year last aforesaid (c), and the parts subject to the jurisdiction of the commissioners acting in the execution of an Act of the fifth year of the reign of King George the Fourth, for (amongst other things) more effectually paving, lighting, watching, cleansing, and regulating the Regent's Park, and in the execution of the several Acts for extending the jurisdiction of such commissioners (d).

II. And be it enacted (e), that in the construction of terms. tion of this Act the following words and expressions shall have the meanings hereby assigned to them, unless such meanings be repugnant to or inconsis

(b) This exemption of the city of London and its liberties still continues.

(c) These commissions of sewers have expired.

(d) This exemption still continues. But as the above-mentioned commissions of sewers have expired the limitation contained in 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 2, post, excludes the metropolis, as defined by the Metropolitan Local Management Act, 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120.

(e) In the case of Queen v. Justices of Cambridgeshire, 7 A. & E. 491, Lord Denman, C. J., says, "We apprehend that an interpretation clause is not to be taken as substituting one set of words for another, nor as strictly defining what the meaning of a word must be under all circumstances; we rather think that it declares what persons may be comprehended within that term when the circumstances require that they should." See also the observations of Lord Cottenham, C., in A. G. v. Worcester Corporation, 15 L. J. R. (N. S.), Ch. 399.

tent with the context or subject matter in which such words or expressions occur (f); (that is to say,)

Words importing the singular number shall in- Number: clude the plural number, and words importing

the plural number shall include the singular
number:

Words importing the masculine gender shall in- Gender: clude females:

The word "person" and words applying to any "Person : " person or individual shall apply to and include corporations, whether aggregate or sole:

"Premises:"

The word "lands" (g) and the word "premises" "Lands:"" shall include messuages, buildings, lands, and hereditaments of any tenure:

The word "owner" (h) shall mean (i) the person for the time being receiving the rackrent of the lands or premises in connexion with which the said word is used, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any other per

(f) See also the statute 13 & 14 Vict. c. 21, which contains a general interpretation of the words month, county, land, and oath.

(g) It was held by two judges in Oldacre v. Hunt, cit. in note on sect. 145, post, that this word included " a right of fishery," though the lords justices did not give any decisive opinion on this point.

(h) See also the definition of this word in sect. 20, post.

This word appears to signify that the following is to be the only interpretation of the word owner, so that the owner of the fee simple who has let the lands upon a ground rent is not within the definition. See Evelyn, app., Wychcord, resp., 22 Jur. 808. In Reg. v. Kershaw, 6 E. & B. 1007, Erle, J., points out the distinction between the words include and mean in the same interpretation section, the former having an extending and the latter an excluding signification. Generally, however, an interpretation clause does not restrain the meaning of the words interpreted. Doe v. Benham, 7 Q. B. 979.

"Owner:"