DAMAGE TO WOODS, ETC., BY SPARKS FROM RAILWAY ENGINES. 291 



In view of the prejudicial manner in which owners and 

 occupiers of land are, with rare exceptions, treated under the 

 existing law, a Bill to amend the law was introduced into the 

 House of Commons, early in 1900, by Mr A. F. Jeffreys. The 

 Bill ran thus : — 



"A Bill to Secure Compensation for Damage to Crops by Fires caused by 

 Sparks from Railway Engines. — Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent 

 Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and 

 Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the 

 authority of the same, as follows: — (1) Where damage is caused to crops, 

 hedges, or plantations by fire arising from sparks emitted from any loco- 

 motive engine on railways, the railway company owning such engine shall, 

 notwithstanding their statutory powers and rights to the contrary, or the 

 provisions of any special or general Act relating thereto, be liable to pay to 

 the person whose crops, hedges, or plantations have been so damaged, the 

 amount of such damage, to be recovered in any court of competent jurisdic- 

 tion. (2) This Act may be cited as the Compensation for Damage to Crops 

 Act, 1900." 



And the following Memorandum was appended to the Bill : — 



"Under the present law all damage caused by sparks from road locomotives 

 can be recovered from the owners of the said locomotives, but railway engines 

 are exempt from this law, and the object of this Bill is to put railway engines 

 and road locomotives on the same footing in this respect." 



On the 9tb, and again on the 21st May 1900, questions on this 

 subject were asked in the House by Mr Jeffreys, and on the latter 

 occasion a short discussion arose, in which Mr Munro Ferguson 

 and other members took part ; but their efforts to induce the 

 Government to take the matter up were unsuccessful. 



In the following month, the Council of the Royal Scottish 

 Arboricultural Society issued the following circular, which was 

 distributed not only among the Society's members, but also among 

 landowners, tenants, and others who it was thought might be 

 interested in the matter : — 



"A short Bill, backed by several private Members of Parliament, has been 

 introduced into the House of Commons with the object of placing railway 

 engines on an equal footing with road locomotives as regards liability to pay 

 compensation for damage to crops, woods, etc., from fire caused by the 

 emission of sparks. When leave was asked for facilities to discuss this Bill, 

 the First Lord of the Treasury, while acknowledging the ' curious discrepancy 

 between the law which applies to road locomotives and that which applies to 

 railway engines,' stated that the President of the Board of Agriculture had 

 ' no detailed information as to the damage done by sparks from railway 



