

THE LEGAL POSITION. 13 



scale. The latter construction has been maintained to be 

 correct, in the face of the obvious absurdity. It is not 

 practicable to strictly set out a scheme for a line of main, 

 to be rigidly followed, without a preliminary examination 

 of the soil that would involve opening up the trench to the 

 full depth required. Because it is the invariable experience 

 that unexpected obstacles are encountered, such as a drain 

 or pipe that has been omitted or wrongly located on existing 

 records, or unexpected variations in the nature of the soil, 

 that have the effect of considerably modifying the original 

 scheme. If a scale drawing is to be furnished beforehand, 

 and to be rigidly adhered to, at the best a very unnecessary 

 expense is incurred, and it may amount to a case of being 

 called upon to make bricks without straw. The adjustment 

 of the matter must depend upon mutual good sense and 

 reasonableness. 



The conditions as to replacement practically leave the 

 company entirely at the mercy of the road surveycr. The 

 word " reinstate," used in the Act, means that the road is 

 to be left as good, not better, than before ; but the tempta- 

 tion to utilize the occasion for securing a permanent better- 

 ment is too strong to be resisted. A country road, as a 

 rule, is not kept in such good order, or so frequently 

 metalled, as one in a town. If the traffic is small, it is 

 probably repaired, at very long intervals, by means of a 

 scanty dressing of inferior local stone, and the crust is so 

 thin that it affords little or no protection to the newly-made 

 trench. The surveyor may order a liberal dressing of the 

 best granite, and lay it at the expense of the gas company. 

 In one case, the surveyor insisted that all spoil not put 

 back into the trench should consist of the top only, and he 

 claimed and took away the spoil, thus securing a good 

 supply of metal for use in o.her places. The trench, of 



