50 



1866. 

 29 & 30 Vic, 

 c. 319. 



Thames Puri- 

 fication Act 

 (short title). 



1867. 

 30 Vic, c 

 101. 

 " Thames 



Conservancy 

 Act " (short 

 title). 



7th June, 

 1867. 



Salmon Fish- 

 ery Congress 

 at South 

 Kensington 



provisions for freeing the river between Staines and 

 Cricklade, in Wilts, near its source, from sewage and 

 noxious and offensive refuse ; and in the same Session also 

 another Act (29 and 30 Vic, cap. 319) was passed, 

 intituled " An Act for the purification of the Kiver 

 " Thames, by the diversion therefrom of the sewage of 

 " Oxford, Abingdon, Heading, Kingston, Richmond, 

 " Twickenham, Isleworth and Brentford, and for the col- 

 *' lection and utilization of the sewage." 



This latter Act empowered certain persons therein 

 named, who were willing at their own expense to divert 

 the sewage from the river, to incorporate themselves into 

 a company for that purpose. No company, however, 

 appears to have been formed nor anything done under the 

 powers of this Act. 



In 1867 an Act was passed conferring on the Con- 

 servators of the Thames the same powers for preventing 

 the pollution of the river between Staines and the western 

 boiaidary of the metropolis, as had been conferred on 

 them by the Thames Navigation Act of the previous year, 

 as regarded the portion of the river between Staines and 

 Cricklade near its source ; but it would seem from the 

 subsequent statements made by Sir George Bowyer (on 

 the motion of Mr. Cave for leave to bring in a Bill for 

 the Conservancy of the River Lea — {Times Report, 21st 

 February, 1868) that this Act and the previous Act of 

 1866 were quite inoperative as regarded the exclusion of 

 sewage from the river, the towns on it. Sir George 

 remarked, " having done nothing to exclude it, and 

 " they declared that they could not be compelled to ex- 

 clude it." 



On the 7th June of this year the great Salmon Fishery 

 Congress assembled at the Horticultural Gardens, South 

 Kensington. It was presided over by Earl Percy (now 

 the Duke of Northumberland), and consisted of noble- 



