except in the case of groups or blocks of houses, referred to in the
preceding regulation.

7. The connection of every "communication pipe" with any pipe
of the Company shall hereafter be made by means of a sound and
suitable brass screwed ferrule or stop-cock with union, and such ferrule
or stop-cock shall be so made as to have a clear area of water-way equal
to that of a half-inch pipe. The connection of every "communica-
tion pipe" with the pipes of the Company shall be made by the
Company's workmen, and the Company shall be paid in advance the
reasonable costs and charges of, and incident to, the making of such
connection.

8. Every "communication pipe" and every pipe external to the
house, and through the external walls thereof, hereafter respectively
laid or fixed in connection with the water of the Company, shall be of
lead, and every joint thereof shall be of the kind called "plumbing"
or " wiped " joint.

9. No pipe shall be used for the conveyance of, or in connection
with, water supplied by the Company, which is laid or fixed through,
in, or into any drain, ash-pit, sink, or manure-hole, or through, in, or
into any place where the water conveyed through such pipe may be
liable to become fouled, except where such drain, ash-pit, sink, or
manure-hole, or any such place, shall be in the unavoidable course of
such pipe, and then in every such case such pipe shall be passed
through an exterior cast-iron pipe or jacket of sufficient length and
strength, and of such construction as to afford due protection to the
water pipe.

10. Every pipe hereafter laid for the conveyance of, or in connection
with, water supplied by the Company, shall, when laid in open ground,
be laid at least 2 feet 6 inches below the surface, and shall in
every exposed situation be properly protected against the effects of
frost.

11. No pipe for the conveyance of, or in connection with, water
supplied by the Company, shall communicate with any cistern, butt,
or other receptacle used or intended to be used for rain water.

12. Every "communication pipe" for the conveyance of water to
be supplied by the Company into any premises shall have at or near



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378 WATER SUPPLIES

its point of entrance into such premises, and if desired by the consumer
within such premises, a sound and suitable stop- valve of the screw-
down kind, with an area of water-way not less than that of a
half-inch pipe, and not greater than that of the "communication
pipe," the size of the valve within these limits being at the option of
the consumer. If placed in the ground such "stop- valve" shall be
protected by a proper cover and "guard-box."

13. Every cistern used in connection with the water supplied by the
Company shall be made and at all times maintained water-tight, and
be properly covered and placed in such a position that it may be
inspected and cleansed. Every such existing cistern, if not already
provided with an efficient "ball-tap," and every such future cistern,
shall be provided with a sound and suitable "ball- tap" of the valve
kind for the inlet of water.

14. No overflow or waste pipe other than a "warning pipe" shall
be attached to any cistern supplied with water by the Company, and
every such overflow or waste pipe existing at the time when these
regulations come into operation shall be removed, or at the option of
the consumer shall be converted into an efficient "warning pipe,"
within two calendar months next after the Company shall have given
to the occupier of, or left at the premises in which such cistern is
situated, a notice in writing requiring such alteration to be made.

15. Every "warning pipe" shall be placed in such a situation as
will admit of the discharge of the water from such "warning pipe"
being readily ascertained by the officers of the Company. And the
position of such "warning pipe" shall not be changed without
previous notice to and approval by the Company.

16. No cistern buried or excavated in the ground shall be used for
the storage or reception of water supplied by the Company, unless the
use of such cistern shall be allowed in writing by the Company.

17. No wooden receptacle without a proper metallic lining shall be
hereafter brought into use for the storage of any water supplied by the
Company.

18. No draw- tap shall in future be fixed unless the same shall be
sound and suitable and of the " screw-down " kind.

19. Every draw- tap in connection with any "stand pipe" or other
apparatus outside any dwelling-house in a court or other public place,
to supply any group or number of such dwelling-houses, shall be
sound and suitable and of the " waste - preventer " kind, and be
protected as far as possible from injury by frost, theft, or mischief.

20. Every boiler, urinal, and water-closet, in which water supplied
by the Company is used (other than water-closets in which hand
flushing is employed), shall, within three months after these regula-



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APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XXI 379

tions come into operation, be served only through a cistern or
service-box and without a stool-cock, and there shall Ihj no direct
communication from the pipes of the Company to any boiler, urinal,
or water-closet.

21. Every water-closet cistern or water-closet service-l>ox hereafter
fitted or fixed, in which water supplied by the Company is to be used,
shall have an efficient waste-preventing apparatus, so constructed as
not to be capable of discharging more than two gallons of water at
each flush.

22. Every urinal-cistern in which water supplied by the Company
is used other than public urinal-cisterns, or cisterns having attached
to them a self-closing apparatus, shall have an efficient " waste-
preventing" apparatus, so constructed as not to l>o capable of
discharging more than one gallon of water at each flush.

23. Every "down pipe" hereafter fixed for the discharge of water
into the pan or basin of any water-closet shall have an internal
diameter of not less than one inch and a quarter, and if of lead shall
weigh not less than nine pounds to every lineal yard.

24. No pipe by which water is supplied by the Company to any
water-closet shall communicate with any part of such water-closet, or
with any apparatus connected therewith, except the service-cistern
thereof.

25. No bath supplied with water by the Company shall have any
overflow waste pipe, except it be so arranged as to act as a ' ' warning
pipe."

26. In every bath hereafter fitted or fixed the outlet shall be distinct
from, and unconnected with, the inlet or inlets ; and the inlet or
inlets must be placed so that the orifice or orifices shall be above the
highest water-level of the bath. The outlet of every such bath shall
be provided with a perfectly water-tight plug, valve, or cock.

27. No alteration shall be made in any fittings in connection with
the supply of water by the Company without two days' previous notice
in writing to the Company.

28. Except with the written consent of the consumer, no cock,
ferrule, joint, union, valve, or other fitting, in the course of any
"communication pipe," shall have a water-way of less area than that
of the "communication pipe," so that the water-way from the water
in the district pipe or other supply pipe of the Company up to and
through the stop- valve prescribed by Regulation No. 12, shall not in
any part be of less area than that of the "communication pipe"
itself, which pipe shall not be of less than a half-inch bore in all its
courses.

29. All lead " warning pipes " and other lead pipes of which the



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380 WATER SUPPLIES

ends are open, so that such pipes cannot remain charged with water,
may be of the following minimum weights, that is to say : —

J inch (internal diameter) . . 3 lbs. per yard.
8 „ „ 5 lbs. „

1 „ „ . 7 lbs. „

30. In these regulations the term "communication pipe" shall
mean the pipe which extends from the district pipe or other supply
pipe of the Company up to the " stop- valve" prescribed in the
Regulation No. 12.

31. Every person who shall wilfully violate, refuse, or* neglect to
comply with, or shall wilfully do or cause to be done any act, matter,
or thing, in contravention of these regulations, or any part thereof,
shall, for every such offence, be liable to a penalty in a sum not
exceeding £5.

32. Where, under the foregoing regulations, any act is required or
authorised to be done by the Company, the same may be done on
•behalf of the Company by an authorised officer or servant of the
Company, and where, under such regulations, any notice is required to
be given by the Company, the same shall be sufficiently authenticated
if it be signed by an authorised officer or servant of the Company.

33. All existing fittings, which shall be sound and efficient, and are
not required to be moved or altered under these regulations, shall be
deemed to be "prescribed fittings" under the "Metropolis Water
Act, 1871."

N.B. — Water is wasted in several ways, as by defective works and
arrangements, by improper fittings, and by abuse and neglect ; proper
fittings and sound workmanship will give good works a fair commence-
ment, but subsequent inspection and repairs will be necessary so long
as they are in use. It will be found by experience that it is cheaper
to supervise and repair the mains and fittings, rather than to allow
water to flow to waste.



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CHAPTER XXII

THE LAW RELATING TO WATER SUPPLIE8

It generally happens that when a water supply is to be pro-
vided, land or water rights, or land and way leaves, have to
be acquired. This may be done either voluntarily or com-
pulsorily, the Public Health Act, 1875, section 175, providing
that any Local Authority may purchase, take on lease, sell, or
exchange any lands, whether situated within or without their
district, and may also buy up any water-mill, dam, or weir
which interferes with the proper drainage of, or the supply of
water to, their district. It is desirable, if possible, to purchase
voluntarily, as the expenses of acquiring land compulsorily
are considerable, and add much to the cost, especially in the
case of village water supplies. But it frequently happens
that the necessary land can only be acquired by compulsory
purchase, and to enable Local Authorities to purchase com-
pulsorily, the Lands Clauses Consolidation Acts are, by
section 176 of the Public Health Act, 1875, incorporated
with that Act ; and that section prescribes the course to be
taken by a Local Authority before putting in force the powers
of the Lands Clauses Acts as to purchasing and taking lands
otherwise than by agreement.

The Lands Clauses Act, 1845, contains valuable powers,
enabling tenants for life and other owners of limited estates
to carry out voluntarily sales of the lands in which they are
interested.

Many persons being incapacitated from selling their lands



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382 WATER SUPPLIES

by reason of disabilities of various kinds, section 6 of that
Act enables all parties entitled to any such lands, or any
estate or interest therein, to sell and convey the same, and
particularly for all Corporations, tenants in tail or for life,
married women seised in their own right or entitled to dower,
Guardians, Committees of Lunatics and of Idiots, Trustees or
Feoffees in trust for charitable or other purposes, Executors
and Administrators, and all parties for the time being entitled
to the receipt of the rents and profits of any lands in possession,
to sell the same.

Similar powers, enabling tenants for life and other persons
having less than an absolute interest in lands to sell volun-
tarily, are conferred by the Settled Land Act, 1882, under
sections 3 and 58 of which a tenant for life, tenant in tail,
tenant by the courtesy, and other limited owners, may sell
the settled land or any part thereof, or any easement, right,
or privilege of any kind for or in relation to the land.

There is a prevalent idea that Local Authorities may use
roadside wastes for sinking wells and other water-supply pur-
poses ; but this is erroneous. Local Authorities, as such, have
no rights whatever in these wastes, and the law presumes, until
evidence is given to the contrary, that the soil of the roadway
to the middle of the road, and of the adjoining strip of waste,
belongs to the owner of the land adjoining to the highway or
to the strip of waste ; and the owner of the roadway and of
the strip of waste is entitled to use his property in every way
not inconsistent with the public right of passage, the right of
the public merely extending to pass along the surface of the
road, and for that purpose to keep it in repair.

This presumption as to the ownership of the soil of the
roadway has been said to rest on the supposition that
when the road was originally set out, the proprietors of the
adjoining land each contributed a portion of their land for
its formation, and the presumption that the soil of a strip
of land lying between the highway and the adjacent enclosure
belongs to the owner of that enclosure is founded on the



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THE LAW RELATING TO WATER SUPPLIES 383

supposition that the proprietor of the adjoining land, at some
former period, gave up to the public free passage of the land
between his enclosure and the middle of the road, or, when
enclosing his land for the road, he left an open space at the
side of the road, over which the public might deviate if
necessary, to avoid the liability to repair which would other-
wise have fallen upon him. If the strip of land communicates
with or is contiguous to an open common or large portion of
land, the presumption is done away with or considerably
narrowed, for the evidence of ownership which applies to the
large portions applies also to the narrow strip which com-
municates with them.

Before proceeding to purchase lands, springs, or streams
for water-supply purposes, precautions should be taken —

(a) To ascertain whether and to what extent neighbouring
landowners can prevent, by legal proceedings, the
water yielded therefrom being used for the pro-
posed water-supply purposes.

(6) Whether and to what extent such landowners can, by
digging wells, cutting trenches, or executing other
works on their own lands, abstract or divert the
water proposed to be utilised.

As to the first question — As a general rule every land-
owner (including a Local Authority owning land) has the
right to dig wells and execute other works on his land, and
thus obtain or divert for his own purposes as much of the
water flowing under his land as he can, even though the
effect may be to abstract or divert the underground waters
which otherwise would flow to and become feeders of springs
and streams on other property. But the law is different with
regard to a watercourse, which has been defined by Lord
Tenterden as "water flowing in a channel between banks
more or less defined."

The riparian proprietors whose lands adjoin a watercourse
may take water from it, but in doing so must have due



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384 WATER SUPPLIES

regard to the similar rights of others whose lands adjoin the
stream, and who have the right " to have the watercourse or
stream come to them in its natural state in flow, quality, and
quantity."

A spring and a stream have been thus defined by Jessel,
M.R. — "A spring of water is, as I understand it, a natural
source of water, of a definite and well-marked extent A
stream of water is water which runs in a defined course, so as
to be capable of diversion, and it has been held that the term
does not include the percolation of underground water."
What is a stream, and where does it begin? is a question
which was raised in the case of Dudden v. Guardians of the
Clutton Union, reported in 11 Exchequer Reports, 627, and
26 Law Journal Reports, Exchequer, 146, where the plaintiff
was the owner of an ancient mill which was supplied with
water from a brook. Adjoining this brook was a spring, the
water from which flowed by a natural channel into the brook.
The guardians, for the purpose of supplying the workhouse,
with water, placed tanks and pipes close to the spring-head,
and took the water before it flowed into the natural channel
The judge directed the jury to find for the plaintiff (and they
did so) if they thought the water flowed in a defined regular
course from the spring-head to the brook.

Upon the application to the Court to set aside the verdict,
Baron Martin thus stated the law : — " The right to flowing
water is a natural right, and all parties are entitled to the
use of it, but a party would not be entitled to divert it when
it is in the act of springing from the ground. He cannot
legally prevent its flowing in to its natural channel. " And Baron
Watson added, " If the diversion in this case had taken place
ten yards from the spring-head, there would be no doubt in
the case, and the rule is the same if the water is diverted at
the source."

The law respecting the right to water flowing in definite
visible channels is clearly enunciated by the judgment of the
Court of Exchequer in the case of Embrey v. Owen, reported



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THE LAW RELATING TO WATER SUPPLIES 385

in 6 Exchequer Reports, 353, and 20 Law Journal Hearts,
E. 212.

This case decided that water is publici juris in this sense
only, that ail may reasonably use it who have the right of
access to it. No man can have any proj>erty in the water
itself, except in that particular portion which he may choose
to abstract from the stream and take into his own possession,
and that during the time of his possession only. Also that
the proprietor of the adjacent land has the right to the
usufruct of the streams that flow through it, not as an ab-
solute and exclusive right to the flow of all the water in its
natural state, but subject to the similar rights of all proprietors
of the banks on each side to a reasonable enjoyment thereof.

In the case of Milner v. Gilmour, Lord Kingsdown laid
down the law as to running streams as follows : — " By the
general law applicable to a running stream, every riparian
proprietor has a right to what may be called the ordinary use
of the water flowing past his land, for instance to the reason-
able use of the water for his domestic purposes and for his
cattle, and this without regard to the effect which such use
may have in case of deficiency upon proprietors lower down
the stream ; but further he has a right to the use of it for any
purpose, or what may be termed the extraordinary use of it,
provided that he does not thereby interfere with the rights of
other proprietors either above or below him. Subject to this
condition he may dam it for the purposes of a mill, or divert
the water for the purpose of irrigation, but he has no right to
interrupt the regular flow of the stream if he thereby inter-
feres with the lawful use of the water by other proprietors,
and inflicts upon them a sensible injury/' Such extraordinary
use, in order to be justifiable, must, however, be a reasonable
one, and one for which a riparian proprietor is entitled to take
the water from its natural course ; for where an unreasonable
use is made of the water by one riparian proprietor, the others
are entitled to have it restrained, even though they prove no
actual damage, on the ground that it is an interference with

2c



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386 WATER SUPPLIES

a right which, unless restrained, would in the course of twenty
years confer on the claimant a right of prescription in dero-
gation of the prior right. It would appear from the case of
the Swindon Water Co. v. Wilts and Berks Canal (Law
Reports, 9 Ch. 457), that an " extraordinary use," as well as
being reasonable, must be for the use of the riparian tenement

But the law as laid down in these cases is inapplicable to
the case of subterranean water not flowing in any separate
channel, or flowing indeed at all in the ordinary sense, but
percolating or oozing through the soil, more or less according
to the quantity of rain that may chance to fall.

The case of Broadbent v. Ramsbotham, reported in 11
Exchequer Reports, 611, and 26 Law Journal Reports, Ex.
115, decided that the right of a riparian owner to the lateral
tributaries or feeders of the main stream applies to waters
flowing in a defined and natural channel or watercourse, and
does not extend to water flowing over, or soaking through,
previous to its arrival at such watercourse.

In this case it was decided that the plaintiff, who was a
miliowner, having the right to use the water of a natural
stream, called Longwood Brook, had no cause of action
against the owners of adjacent land for diverting water,
which, coming from a pond formed by landslips, escaped over
the surface of this land, and thence, by natural force of
gravity, found its way by land-drains or dykes to the brook ;
or for diverting the overflow from a well and a swamp on
that land, which ran in wet seasons to the brook; or for
diverting the overflow from another well on that land used
as a watering-place for cattle, which overflow formed a stream,
and, after following the course of an artificial ditch, along a
hedge-side, and in other parts flowing down a small channel,
formed by the water, and over swampy places, where the
cattle had trodden in the soil, ran over a field, and thence
along a natural valley, and along hedge -sides and ditches,
and discharged itself into the brook ; and it was held that the
plaintiff, although he had a right to the use of the water of the



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THE LAW RELATING TO WATER SUPPLIES 387

brook, had no cause of action against the owner of the adjacent
land for diverting either of the al>ove three sources of supply
before the waters had arrived at a definite natural watercourse.

With regard to the second question, the Jaw has been
defined and settled by two important decisions of the House
of Lords, the first of Chasemore v. Richards, decided in July
1859, and reported in 7 House of Lords Re[>orts, 382, and 29
Law Journal Reports, Exchequer, 81, which decided that the
owner of land, containing underground water which percolates
by undefined channels, and flows to the land of a neighbour,
has the right to divert or appropriate the percolating water
within his own land, so as to deprive his neighbour of it.

In that case, much of the law relating to waters flowing
above or underground was dealt with by the various learned
judges who delivered judgments. The facts of the case
and the law relating to it were stated by Mr. Justice Wight-
man as follows : —

"The plaintiff is an occupier of an ancient mill on the
river Wandle, and for more than sixty years he and his
predecessors had used and enjoyed, as of right, the flow
of the river for the purposes of working their mill; the
river had always been supplied above the plaintiff's mill, in
part, by the water produced by the rainfall on a district of
many thousand acres in extent, comprising the town of
Croydon and its vicinity. The water of the rainfall sinks
into the ground to various depths, and then flows and per-
colates through the strata to the river Wandle, part rising
to the surface, and part finding its way underground in
courses which continually vary.

" The Croydon Local Board sink a well in their own land
in the town of Croydon, and by means of the well and by
pumping from it large quantities of water for the supply of
the town of Croydon, the Board abstracted and interrupted
underground water (but underground water only) that other-
wise would have flowed and found its way into the river
Wandle, and so to the plaintiff's mill, and the quantity so



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388 WATER SUPPLIES

diverted was sufficient to be of sensible value toward working
the mill."

The law as decided in Chasemore v. Kichards has been
followed and extended by the important recent case, decided
by the House of Lords in July 1895, of the Mayor, Aldermen,
and Burgesses of the Borough of Bradford v. Edward Pickles,
where it was decided that not only has the owner of land
containing underground water which percolates by undefined
channels and flows to the land of his neighbour the right to
divert or appropriate the percolating water within his own
land so as to deprive his neighbour of it, but his right to do
this is the same whatever his motive may be, whether to
improve his own land or maliciously to injure his neighbour
or to induce his neighbour to buy him out. In this case the