cution of such office or employment, and for duly accounting for all monies which may be intrusted to him by reason thereof, as they may think sufficient; and every such officer and servant, as well during his continuance in office or employment as upon his resignation, dismissal, or ceasing to hold his office or employment, shall respectively, when and in such manner as shall be required by the board or vestry, make out and deliver a true and perfect account, in writing signed by him, of all monies received by him for the purposes of this Act, and stating how, and to whom, and for what purpose such monies have been disposed of, and shall together with such account deliver the vouchers or receipts for all payments made by him, and pay over to the treasurer or such person as the board or vestry may appoint all monies owing by him; and if any such If officer fail officer or servant fail to render such account, or to pro- to render acduce and deliver up such of the said vouchers and re- justice may ceipts as may be in his possession or power, or to pay fender to over any such monies as aforesaid, or if, for the space of prison. five days after being thereunto required, he fail to deliver up to the board or vestry, or to such person as they may appoint, all books, papers, writings, property, effects, matters, and things in his possession or power belonging to the board or vestry, then and in every such case (m) a justice shall, on complaint being made to him in that behalf, summon the party charged to appear and answer the complaint before two justices, at a time and place to

26 L. J. (N. S.) Q. B. 90; Frank v. Edwards, 8 Ex. 214; and see Evans v. Bremridge, 25 L. J. (N. S.) Ch. 102, where one of two co-sureties was held to be discharged in equity from his covenant to repay money advanced to the principal debtor where the other surety did not execute. The remedies against sureties no less than a proper control over the officers authorized to recover money depends on a strict adherence on the part of boards and vestries to the regulations in force for checking the collections and for other objects.

(m) But an action may be brought against the defaulter; Mayor, &c. of Lichfield v. Simpson, 8 Q. B. 65.

count, &c.

commit of

Power to

tress.

be specified in the summons; and upon the appearance of the party charged, or upon proof that the summons was personally served upon him or left at his last known place of abode in England, and if it appear to the lastmentioned justices that he has failed to render any such account, or to produce and deliver up any such vouchers or receipts, or any such books, papers, writings, property, effects, matters, or things as aforesaid, and that he still fails or refuses so to do, it shall be lawful for them, by warrant under their hands and seals, to commit the offender to gaol, there to remain, without bail, until he shall have rendered such account, and produced and delivered up all such vouchers, receipts, books, papers, writings, property, effects, matters, and things in respect of which the charge was made; and if it appears that the levy by dis party charged has failed to pay over any such monies as aforesaid, and that he still fails or refuses so to do, it shall be lawful for the last-mentioned justices, by a like warrant, to cause the same to be levied by distress and sale of his goods and chattels, and in default of any sufficient distress to commit him to gaol, there to remain, without bail, for a period not exceeding three months, unless such monies be sooner paid: Provided always, that if the complainant, by deposition on oath, show to the satisfaction of any justice that there is probable cause for believing that the party charged intends to abscond, it shall be lawful for such justice, without previous summons, by warrant under his hand and seal, to cause him to be forthwith apprehended; and in such case the said party shall, within twenty-four hours after apprehension, be brought before the same or some other justice, who may order that he be discharged from custody, if such justice think that there is no sufficient ground for detention, or that he be further detained until he be brought before two justices at a time and place to be named in the order, unless bail to the satisfaction of the Justice be given for the appearance of the party before such two justices: Provided also, that no such proceed

ing shall be construed to relieve or discharge any surety of the offender from any liability whatsoever.

and district

and cause

LXVI. The metropolitan board of works and every Metropolitan such district board and vestry respectively shall provide boards and and maintain such offices within their respective district vestries to provide proor parish as may be necessary for the purposes of this per offices, Act, and shall take care that their clerk, or some person daily attenduly authorized by them in that behalf, attends at their dance to be office daily (Sundays, Christmas Day, and Good Friday, and days appointed for any general fast or thanksgiving, alone excepted), for the purpose of receiving notices and transacting the ordinary business of the board or vestry under this Act.

Duties and Powers of Vestries and District Boards (n).

given.

following

provisions to

LXVII. Where in the provisions hereinafter con- "Vestry” in tained any expression is used referring to the vestry of a parish, such expression shall be construed as referring mean vestry only to the vestry of a parish mentioned in schedule (A.) in schedule to this Act, unless such construction be repugnant to the (4.)

context.

(n) By the Metropolis Gas Act, 1860, 23 & 24 Vict. c. 125, certain powers are conferred upon vestries and district boards with respect to the supply of gas. By the 4th section of that Act they are, with the metropolitan board, included under the expression "local authority." See sect. 7 as to complaints to secretary of state as to quantity or quality of gas, and the following section in relation to inquiries and reports of inspectors, the 13th as to costs, the 19th, 20th, and 21st as to contracts with gas companies, the 22nd as to the obligations on gas companies to light streets on the requisition of the local authority, the 23rd as to the provision and maintenance by local authority of lamp-posts and lamps, &c., the 27th requiring local authority to provide proper apparatus, &c., for testing illuminating power of gas, and authorizing them to pay examiners of gas, the 36th providing for the determination of existing contracts, the 37th fixing charge for gas to be supplied for public lamps, the 38th for the settlement of disputes by arbitration, and the 54th as to the savings of rights, &c., and application to secretary of state when the local authority

of a parish

Sewers (except main sewers) ves

ted in ves

LXVIII. Upon the commencement of this Act all

tries and dis- refuses or delays its consent for laying mains or pipes. See trict boards the Act, post, Appendix, and see Act 25 & 26 Vict. c. 102, (a).

post.

(a) The effect of this section, and of sect. 135, is to vest in the metropolitan board the main sewers enumerated in schedule (D.) to the Act, including the main sewers of the city of London, and all other sewers within the parishes mentioned in schedules (A.) and (B.) in the vestries and district boards. All sewers within the city of London other than the main sewers specified in schedule (D.) remain vested in the commissioners of sewers of the city, who retain all powers relative to sewerage under the City of London Sewers Act, 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 163), which are not transferred to the metropolitan board by virtue of this Act. The sewers existing in Woolwich at the time of the passing of this Act were vested in the local board of health, constituted under the Public Health Act, who, by sect. 238 of this Act, are made subject to the orders of the metropolitan board in relation to sewerage and other matters in the same manner as vestries. None of the main sewers mentioned in schedule (D.) are in that parish, and any future sewers which may be made, either by the metropolitan or local board of health, will be vested in the respective bodies, subject to the power of adoption by the former under the provisions of this Act. Those sewers, belonging to the metropolitan commissioners, which are situate in districts without the limits of the metropolis as at present defined, are excepted from the property transferred by sect. 148, and the duty of maintaining them has devolved on the surveyors of highways, who exercise their powers under the General Highway and Nuisances Removal Acts. At the time of the Metropolis Management Act coming into operation, parts of the parish of St. Leonard, Bromley, one of the parishes mentioned in schedule (B.), were within the limits of the Havering and Dagenham commission of sewers, which commission, for some time after the passing of this Act, collected rates and exercised jurisdiction within them; but it is understood that those parts have been excluded from the limits of the commission for those levels since issued. There are certain local sewers in the metropolis forming the boundary of two parishes, the property in which seems to be divided. These are in practice cleansed and repaired by arrangement between the parishes concerned. The word "sewer" applies to the subject matters specified in the 250th section of this Act, as qualified by the 112th section of the 25 & 26 Vict. c. 102. See observations of Kindersley, V.C., in Sutton v. Mayor, &c., of Norwich, 27 L. J. (N. S.) Ch. 739, as to the meaning of the word "sewer." It originally meant a sea-wall, weir, dam or defence against tides and inundations, or, according to

sewers vested in the metropolitan commissioners of

others, a trench supported by banks for carrying fresh waters into the sea. According to the case of the Poplar District Board v. Knight, 28 L. J. (N. S.) 37, the word sewer, asjused in the 204th and other sections of this Act, includes the wall and bank of the river Thames, preserving the low lands contiguous from inundation. It has, however, long since been extended beyond its original signification, and applied to channels both open and covered for the conveyance of feculent drainage. The situation of the sewers dealt with by the present Act is for the most part well known and ascertained, the greater part of them being laid down upon the sheets of the subterranean survey in the possession of the metropolitan board of works. Before the passing of the Sewers' Act, 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 22, commissioners of sewers, in general, had not such a possession of their works as enabled them to maintain an action of trespass against parties injuring them; Duke of Newcastle and others v. Clarke, 8 Taunt. 602; and see Stracey v. Nelson, 12 M. & W. 535. The language of the present section, which is founded upon the provisions of the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 112, the Metropolitan Sewers Act, 1848, now expired, gives boards and vestries such an interest in the works constructed by them, or subject to their jurisdiction, as would enable them to maintain actions against parties injuring them, the nature of that interest being such as is described in Stracey v. Nelson, supra. The terms of the present enactment vesting the sewers, &c., in boards and vestries are very similar to those used in sect. 96, vesting highways in vestries, &c., under which it seems to have been supposed that the soil of highways has become vested in the district boards and vestries; Wandsworth Board of Works v. London and South Western Railway Company, 8 Jur. (N.S.) 691, Ch. ; but see Stracey v. Nelson, supra, and note (c) to sect. 96, post. Generally, these bodies have the property in their buildings and works, but not in the soil and bed of the stream, banks, watercourses, &c., within their survey, cognizance, and management. In some instances, however, in which the former sewers commissioners purchased land for straightening or otherwise improving sewers, or other objects, they are the owners of the soil. So, also, in the case of the land purchased for the purposes of the outfall works of the main intercepting drainage, the metropolitan board have the absolute property in such land. The present enactment does not contain any words conferring upon boards and vestries the powers and authorities given by ordinary sewers commissions, therefore they cannot proceed by presentment, amerciament, &c., for annoyances and encroachments. But sections 68 and 69 of the 25 & 26 Vict. c. 102, impose penalties for various