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ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA.

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76, note (o), add: (1903) 2 K. B. 354; 72 L. J. K. B. 677.

110, lines 22, 23, for Municipal Corporations (Borough Funds) Act, 1872, read Borough Funds Act, 1872.

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line 27, add: County Councils have now been given power to incur costs in promoting bills by County Councils (Bills in Parliament) Act, 1903 (3 Edw. 7, c. 9). See also Borough Funds Act, 1903 (3 Edw. 7, c. 14).

162, line 23, for 3 Car. 1, read 1 Car. 1.

205, line 38, add: Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1903 (3 Edw. 7, c. 33), s. 50, provides for the carrying of certain lights by carriages, a word which includes tramway cars by Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c. 55), s. 4.

227, line 44, add: See also Cowper v. Laidler, (1903) 2 Ch. 337; 72 L. J. Ch. 578.

229, line 5, add: 72 L. J. Ch. 695.

255, line 38, add: (1903), W. N. 161.

256, line 1, add: (1903), W. N. 161.

320, line 18, for Municipal Corporations (Borough Funds) Act, 1872, read Borough Funds Act, 1872.

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line 19, add: See also, now, County Councils (Bills in Parliament) Act, 1903 (3 Edw. 7, c. 9), and Borough Funds Act, 1903 (3 Edw. 7, c. 14).

453, line 8, read: 3 Edw. 7, C. 40.

482, line 10, add: 72 L. J. Ch. 705.

496, line 23, read: 3 Edw. 7, c. 30.

507, lines 31, 32, read: now the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, by Board of Agriculture Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 30), s. 2 (1b), and Board of Agriculture and Fisheries Act, 1903 (3 Edw. 7, c. 31), s. 1. 511, lines 9-11, read: the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries for the Land Commissioners (Board of Agriculture Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 30), s. 2 (1b), and Board of Agriculture and Fisheries Act, 1903 (3 Edw. 7, c. 31), s. 1).

516, line 17, add: An alternative procedure is now provided by Railways (Electrical Power) Act, 1903 (3 Edw. 7, c. 30).

528, line 31, for Board of Agriculture, read Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, by Board of Agriculture and Fisheries Act, 1903 (3 Edw. 7, c. 31), s. 1.

Part I.

TRAMWAYS AND LIGHT RAILWAYS.

CHAPTER I.

TRAMWAYS AND LIGHT RAILWAYS.

BRITISH statute law contains no definition of a "tramway." In Swansea Improvements and Tramway Co. v. Swansea Urban Sanitary Authority (a), Wills, J., remarks: "As definition is always periculosa plenum opus alec, I shall follow the example of Legislature and not attempt to define either railway or tramway. It appears sufficient to say that no ordinary person has any difficulty in distinguishing between the two." That may have been correct in 1892; but at the present time, if, not an ordinary person, but the learned judge himself, were set down before one of those systems of traction which have been constructed in part under Tramways Act, 1870, and in part under Light Railways Act, 1896, he would find it impossible to discover by simple inspection whether the particular piece of line at which he was looking was a tramway or a light railway. For British statute law contains no definition of "light railway" either.

It is necessary, therefore, to sketch briefly the manner in which the present position has come about. Ireland has the honour of being the first portion of

S.

7

(a) [1892] 1 Q. B. 357; 61 L. J. M. C. 124.

B

Chap. I. the British Islands on which tramway and light railway legislation was conferred. In 1860 the Tramways (Ireland) Act (23 & 24 Vict. c. 152) was passed, and was followed by a great number of other Acts, which are enumerated post, p. 92, and which constitute a complete and elaborate code for tramways and light railways. Many lines have been constructed under the provisions of this code, but the present work is not concerned with them, save in so far as they have any bearing on the tramway and light railway legislation applied to Great Britain.

Scotland followed in 1861 with the peculiar and useless statute printed post, p. 279, the Tramways (Scotland) Act, 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 69). This Act proved to be of no practical use, for the reasons which are detailed in the note at the commencement of the Act itself, and need not be repeated here.

In England and Wales before 1870 there existed a certain number of private or semi-private tramways (b), and a certain number of tramways were laid down under special Acts, e.g., at Liverpool in 1868, and in London in 1869. There were also certain unauthorised attempts to lay tramways on public roads without statutory powers which were speedily and thoroughly suppressed (c).

The existence of tramways was also recognized in certain general Acts-Regulation of Railways Act, 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c. 119), s. 2; Railway Companies Securities Act, 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. 108), s. 2; and Improvement of Land Act, 1864 (27 & 28 Vict. c. 114).

In 1870 the Tramways Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 78), was passed. This Act extends to England, Wales and Scotland, and provides (a) Part I., a new and expeditious mode of obtaining statutory authority for tramways, that is to say, by a Provisional Order made by the Board of Trade and confirmed by Act

(b) See the cases cited in note (s) to sect. 15 of Tramways Act, 1870. (c) See the cases cited in the note to the title of Tramways Act, 1870, post, p. 91.

of Parliament; and (b) Parts II. and III., a set of Chap. I. clauses forming the code which applies to tramways on public roads, whether authorised by Provisional Order or by special Act, unless expressly varied or excepted by such Order or Act.

A writer, who is presenting a statute with annotations, should eschew the practice of setting out beforehand a résumé of its provisions in other, and probably more confused, language. Only the most salient features of the Act, then, will be noticed here.

I. Every application for a Provisional Order, other than those made by local authorities (defined in Part I. of Sched. A. to the Act), must be made with the consent of the local authorities. The same provision has been embodied in the Standing Orders of both Houses with reference to the promotion of private Bills for the construction of tramways. It is this feature which has been the chief obstacle to progress in the construction of tramways. Local authorities are not distinguished for liberality in their attitude towards the commercial enterprises of persons other than themselves, and are apt to take up an obstructive attitude even towards proposals which are for the benefit of their own district, and even if they do not intend to carry out a similar enterprise on their own account. There are, it is true, two respects in which the absolute veto of local authorities is modified: (a) Under sect. 5 of the Act, and Standing Order 22, the Board of Trade or the Committee may dispense with the consent of the other local authorities, if the local authorities controlling two-thirds of the proposed route consent; (b) The Standing Orders relating to consent may be dispensed with in a proper case. But the Standing Orders Committees are unwilling to dispense with them except under very special circumstances.

II. Again, sects. 8 and 15 of the Act prohibit the incorporation with Provisional Orders of the provisions of

Chap. I.

the Lands Clauses Acts with respect to the purchase and taking of lands otherwise than by agreement.

These two features-the necessity of obtaining the local authorities' consent and the prohibition of compulsory purchase-proved to be most injurious obstacles even in the days of horse traction. They have been even more serious since the introduction of mechanical power. (i) A tramway worked by mechanical power is apt to be of larger dimensions than a horse tramway, and to extend into the districts of a greater number of local authorities, whom it is more difficult to pacify than a smaller number. (ii) A mechanical tramway requires land, for the purposes of generating stations and other things, which it is generally difficult to acquire by agreement, and in respect of which, if acquired by agreement, the promoters may be liable in damages on account of their peculiar user. Further, till recently the provisions inserted by the Board of Trade in Provisional Orders with regard to the use of mechanical power were so onerous that promoters preferred to go to the expense of obtaining a special Act by which they might be granted easier terms.

III. Sect. 43 of the Act provides for the terms on which local authorities may purchase any tramways within six months of the expiration of twenty-one years from the date of the Order or Act, or within six months of the expiration of each subsequent period of seven years. This section, as interpreted by the House of Lords in Edinburgh Street Tramways Co. v. Lord Provost and Magistrates of Edinburgh (c) and London Street Tramways Co. v. London County Council (d), enables the local authority to buy the tramways at the specified times for what is called "old iron price." With this fate overhanging them (of which, however, till 1894 they seem to have been only partly con

(c) [1894] A. C. 456; 21 R. (H. L.) 78; 63 L. J. Q. B. 769.
(d) [1894] A. C. 489; 63 L. J. Q. B. 769.

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