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SEWAGE OUTFALLS AND DISCHARGE 321 



lakes, has usually been held not to apply to tidal waters ; and 

 similarly the provisions of the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act 

 of 1876 can only be operative after the Local Government 

 Board have made a local enquiry, and declared that for the 

 purposes of the Act the estuary or tidal portions of a river shall 

 be deemed a part of the river on sanitary grounds. 



The Salmon Fishery Acts are also equally unsatisfactory, 

 and the Royal Commission on Salmon Fisheries in 1902 has 

 pointed out serious defects in the existing Acts. 



On the other hand, we may note that under the common 

 law, when injury to others has been proved, a local authority 

 may be restrained from discharging sewage into tidal waters. 



The case of Lord Gifford against the Corporation of Chichester 

 in igoi is illustrative, and after this decision several oyster 

 fisheries and owners of fishing rights in tidal waters have taken 

 steps in a similar way to enforce the purification of sewage 

 discharged into tidal waters by local authorities, when such 

 sewage has been detrimental to their trades. In the above 

 case the evidence was partly bacteriological, and the action 

 was won largely on the fact, which was undisputed, that "coli " 

 organisms were found in the mud of the estuary below the 

 outfall, but the present works, approved by the Local Govern- 

 ment Board to meet the injunction, will no more stop the 

 passage of coli into the estuary than bacteriological treatment 

 of London sewage would sterilize the Thames. 



Although the extent of illness attributable to the consump- 

 tion of contaminated shellfish is difficult to gauge, the present 

 Sewage Commission find the evil sufficiently great to demand a 

 remedy, and thus save the expenses and uncertainty of these 

 actions. In 1899 a Government Bill was introduced, but not 

 passed, for the protection of public health against dangers 

 arising from the consumption of unwholesome oysters. The 

 interests of the industry, which is estimated to have a capital 

 value of from six to eight million pounds sterling, still remain 

 sufficiently great to warrant serious consideration, as the oyster 

 scares have, from time to time, brought about severe disturbance 

 to the trade. 



The remedies suggested are threefold : (i) Purification of 

 sewage ; (2) seizure and destruction of unwholesome fish 

 exposed for sale ; (3) the creation of a competent authority to 

 deal with tidal waters. 



With regard to the first, the Commissioners recognise that 



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