c. 77, s. 4. 23 & 24 Vict. and any or every such place; and so much of such charges and expenses as may be apportioned to any or every such place for Part of parish. the whole of which such Board is the local authority shall be defrayed out of the rates or funds applicable to the relief of the poor thereof. Ib. Ib. Provision for raising money in divided parishes. 29 & 30 Vict. c. 90, s. 33. Nuisances defined. 18 & 19 Vict. c. 121, s. 8. So much of any such charges and expenses as may be appor tioned to part of a place maintaining its own poor, and any such charges and expenses incurred by any Board of Guardians or overseers, where such Board or overseers are the local authority for part of any such place only, shall be defrayed by means of an addition to be made to the rate for the relief of the poor thereof, and be raised and paid in like manner as money expended for the relief of the poor. The 23 & 24 Vict. c. 77, s. 4, applies only to parishes which are divided between boroughs and counties, or between separate local authorities. The last-mentioned provision it will be seen is not repealed, though the Sanitary Act, 1866, enacts that :-"Where the guardians are the nuisance authority for part of any parish only, and shall require to expend money on account of such part in execution of the provisions of the Nuisances Removal Acts, the overseers of the parish shall, upon receipt of an order from the guardians, raise the requisite amount from the persons liable to be assessed to the poor rate therein by a rate to be made in like manner as a poor rate, and shall have all the same powers of making and recovering the same, and of paying the expense of collecting the rate when made, and shall account to the auditor of the district for receipt and disbursement of the same, in like manner, and with the same consequences, as in the case of the poor rate made by them." It will be noticed that the words "poor rate therein," refer to their antecedent, "overseers of the parish," not to "part of any parish only." The whole parish will therefore, it seems, be liable to the charge. § 5. WHAT ARE DEEMED NUISANCES. The Act defines the word "nuisances" as including- 2. Any pool, ditch, gutter, watercourse, privy, urinal, cess- 3. Any animal so kept as to be a nuisance or injurious to health. 4. Any accumulation or deposit which is a nuisance or injurious to health. But it expressly provides that no such accumulation or deposit as shall be necessary for the effectual carrying on of any business or manufacture shall be punishable as a nuisance when it is proved to the satisfaction of the justices that the accumulation or deposit has not been kept longer than is necessary for the purpose of such business or manufacture, and that the best available means have been taken for protecting the public from injury to health thereby. By the Sanitary Act, 1866, the word "nuisances" under the Addition to Nuisance Removal Act shall include definition of nuisance. 1. Any house or part of a house so overcrowded as to be 29 & 30 Vict. dangerous or prejudicial to the health of the inmates. C. 90, s. 19. 2. Any factory, workshop, or workplace not already under the operation of any general Act for the regulation of factories or bakehouses, not kept in a cleanly state, or not ventilated in such a manner as to render harmless as far as practicable any gases, vapours, dust, or other impurities generated in the course of the work carried on therein, that are a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to health, or so overcrowded while work is carried on as to be dangerous or prejudicial to the health of those employed therein. 3. Any fireplace or furnace which does not as far as practicable consume the smoke arising from the combustible used in such fireplace or furnace, and is used within the district of a nuisance authority for working engines by steam, or in any mill, factory, dyehouse, brewery, bakehouse, or gaswork, or in any manufactory or trade process whatsoever. Any chimney (not being the chimney of a private dwellinghouse) sending forth black smoke in such quantity as to be a nuisance : Provided, first, that in places where at the time of the passing of this Act no enactment is in force compelling fireplaces or furnaces to consume their own smoke, the foregoing enactment as to fireplaces and furnaces consuming their own smoke shall not come into operation until the expiration of one year from the date of the passing of this Act: Secondly, that where a person is summoned before the justices in respect of a nuisance arising from a fireplace or furnace which does not consume the smoke arising from the combustible used in such fireplace or furnace, the justices may hold that no nuisance is created within the meaning of this Act, and dismiss the complaint, if they are satisfied that such fireplace or furnace is constructed in such manner as to consume as far as practicable, having regard to the nature of the manufacture or trade, all smoke arising therefrom, and that such fireplace or furnace has been carefully attended to by the person having the charge. thereof. The justices are the best judges whether or not an efficient alteration has taken place in respect of furnaces emitting smoke, and if they come to the conclusion that it had not, the Court will not interfere; per Mellor, J., the limitation of six months- Provision as authority c. Co, s. 30. Provision as to ships within the jurisdiction of nuisance authority. Ib. s. 32. Nuisances defined. 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43, s. 11, does not apply to such a case as a continuing nuisance. (1) For the purposes of the Sanitary Act, 1866, any ship, vessel, or boat that is in a place not within the district of a nuisance authority shall be deemed to be within the district of such nuisance authority as may be prescribed by the Local Government Board, and until a nuisance authority has been prescribed, then of the nuisance authority whose district nearest adjoins the place where such ship, vessel, or boat is lying, the distance being measured in a straight line. The nuisance authority cannot, however, interfere with any ship, vessel, or boat that is not in British waters. Any ship or vessel lying in any river, harbour, or other water shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the nuisance authority of the district within which such river, harbour, or other water is, and be within the provisions of the Nuisances Removal Acts, in the same manner as if it were a house within such jurisdiction, and the master or other officer in charge of such ship shall be deemed for the purposes of the Nuisances Removal Acts to be the occupier of such ship or vessel; this provision however does not apply to any ship or vessel belonging to Her Majesty or to any foreign government. Of nuisances, Mr. Justice Blackstone says, "Nuisance, nocumentum, or annoyance, signifies anything which worketh hurt, inconvenience, or damage. And nuisances are of two kinds: public or common nuisances which affect the public, and are an annoyance to all the king's subjects-for which reason we must refer them to the class of public wrongs, or crimes and misdemeanours: and private nuisances, which are the objects of our present consideration, and may be defined, anything done to the hurt or annoyance of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments of another." (2) Elsewhere he says, "Common nuisances are a species of offences against the public order and economical regimen of the State; being either the doing a thing to the annoyance of all the king's subjects, or the neglecting to do a thing which the common good requires." (3) And again he says, "Common nuisances are such inconvenient or troublesome offences as annoy the whole community in general, and not merely some particular person, and therefore not indictable only, and not actionable." (4) He says, "Common nuisances are all those kinds of nuisances (such as offensive trades and manufactures) which, when injurious to a private man are actionable, are, when detrimental to the public, punishable by public prosecution, and subject to fine according to the quantity of the misdemeanour; and particularly the keeping of hogs in any city or market town is indictable as a public nuisance." (5) (1) Higgin, app., Northwich, resp., 34 J. P. 452; 22 L. T. (N. S.) 752. (2) 3 Com, 216. (3) 4 Com. 166. (4) 4 Com. 167. (5) 4 Com, 167, and Reg. v. Wigg Salk. 460. And again, per Lord Mansfield, C. J., to constitute a nuisance Nuisances it is enough that the matter complained of renders the enjoy- defined. ment of life and property uncomfortable. (1) It is with public or common nuisances that the present statute deals, for private nuisances have their own peculiar remedy. The particular thing complained of must be a nuisance or injurious to health; so that injury to health need not necessarily be conjoined with the nuisance; but inasmuch as it is scarcely possible to define what is a nuisance under the Act apart from its being injurious to health, it will be the safest course for the justices not to act unless it be proved to them that the particular thing complained of is a nuisance injurious to health, and that it is likely in a substantial degree to injure the health of persons passing by or living near to the premises on which it exists. In another instance where an information to restrain a nuisance was filed nine months before the hearing, and up to the hearing in March no steps had been taken to abate the nuisance, a perpetual injunction was granted; but under the circumstances the Court refused to suspend it beyond the second seal in Michaelmas term following, with liberty to apply for an extension of the time if it were shown that due diligence had been used to abate the nuisance. (2) The following may be noted:-The sewage from a lunatic asylum was alleged to foul a brook so as to be a public nuisance, and an information was filed to restrain the outpouring of such sewage so as to cause a nuisance. After standing over ineffectually for an arrangement for two years, the case was argued, when the Court directed a reference to an expert (who was agreed upon), under the 15 & 16 Vict. c. 80, s. 42, as to whether, with reference to the health of the inhabitants, it was necessary that steps should be taken for purifying the brook, or whether the drainage should be diverted from the brook, and by what means. (3) c. 31. For the following peculiar class of public nuisances special Nuisances provision has been made by the 20 & 21 Vict. c. 31-wilfully on village causing any injury or damage to any fence of any town or greens. 20 & 21 Vict. village green or land, or wilfully and without lawful authority leading or driving any cattle or animal thereon, or wilfully laying any manure, soil, ashes, or rubbish or other matter or thing, thereon, or doing any other act whatsoever to the injury of such town or village green or land, or to the interruption of the use or enjoyment thereof as a place of exercise and recreation. Persons offending in any of these respects, upon a summary conviction thereof before two justices, upon the information of any churchwarden or overseer of the parish in which the green or land is situated, or of the person in whom the soil of the (1) Rex v. White, 1 Burr. 337. (2) Attorney-General v. Birming ham, 24 L. T. (N. S.) 224. (3) Attorney-General v. Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum, 19 L. T. Nuisances on village greens. 20 & 21 Vict. c. 31. Arising from noxious trades, etc. 18 & 19 Vict. c. 121, s. 8. Ib. s. 43. Premises defined. 18 & 19 Vict. C. 121, S. 2. green or land may be vested, for each and every offence, over and above the damages occasioned thereby, are liable to a penalty not exceeding 40s. Under the General Inclosure Act, 8 & 9 Vict. c. 118, s. 15, provision is made for preserving town and village greens for the use of the inhabitants; and by section 73 for allotments of commons as places of exercise and recreation of the inhabitants of the parish and neighbourhood. These provisions, however, concern the churchwardens and overseers of the parishes in which the greens and commons may be situated, and not local authorities for the purposes of the Public Health or Nuisances Removal Acts. The carrying on of noxious trades or manufactures is not legalized by the proviso to the 8th section, which only defines the conditions upon which accumulations or deposits which are injurious to health may be suffered to remain on the premises; namely, that the accumulation or deposit has not been kept longer than is necessary for the purposes of the particular business or manufacture, and that the best available means have been taken for protecting the public from injury to health thereby. It is not enough that the precautions ordinarily adopted in the particular trade or manufacture have been observed, for they must be the best available means which can be adopted for securing the end in view. (1) In determining this question the justices will doubtless be guided more by the opinions of scientific persons than by considerations of the expense which "the best available means" would cost. Even though the best available means have been adopted, the trade or employment may continue a nuisance or injurious to health, and though it will in that case be dispunishable under this Act, persons injured thereby have still their private remedy, for it is provided that nothing in the Act shall impair any power of abating nuisances at common law. As a general rule it is apprehended that the local authority will not deem it necessary to take proceeding for the removal of offensive accumulations or deposits against persons carrying on noxious trades when they have every reason to believe that such persons have done everything in their power to lessen the inconvenience occasioned thereby to the neighbourhood, as otherwise the local authority may be mulcted in the costs of a frivolous or unfounded com plaint. Further, with respect to noxious trades or manufactures, see post, p. 549; and as regards houses, etc., in an unwholesome state in a district under a Local Board of Health, see the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, s. 60, ante, p. 162. By the interpretation clause the word "premises" extends to all messuages, lands, or tenements, whether open, or enclosed, whether built on or not, and whether public or private. There is another class of nuisances arising from noxious (1) Schofield v. Schunck, 19 J. P. 84. |