370 MISCELLANEOUS 



In this report the Committee drew attention to the Derby 

 County Court case of Fletcher v. Howe (early in 1890), where 

 the Judge laid down that if an occupier of land does not fence 

 for himself he must take his chance of his neighbour's cattle 

 straying on to his land, unless he can show by a long course 

 of practice that the occupier of the neighbouring land has 

 not only repaired the fence, but has repaired for his neigh- 

 bour's advantage as well as for his own. The Committee 

 claimed that as this was only a County Court judgment and 

 applied to the particular case only, it did not make the 

 necessity for an alteration of the law any less than before ; 

 that in fact it made their case stronger, as tending to show that 

 what they would make the general law was held to be law in 

 this particular case. 



The Board were then formally requested to introduce a 

 Bill, but as in May, 1891, no Bill was forthcoming, the Council 

 sent a deputation to wait upon the President of the new Depart- 

 ment, to ask him to introduce a measure. Mr. Chaplin met 

 the deputation the following June, and later on wrote to say 

 that the Board were not prepared to propose legislation on 

 the matter. In February, 1892, the Council passed a resolu- 

 tion asking the House of Lords to appoint a Select Committee 

 to inquire into the law, and the desirability of its amendment. 

 As this request met with no success, nothing further was done 

 until November, 1895, when another resolution was adopted 

 asking the Government to appoint a Select Committee, but 

 this also met with no success. 



The Committee met twice in 1897, and having gained the 

 support and interest of Mr. Walter Morrison, prepared a Bill 

 which was laid before the Council in April, 1898. This was 

 submitted to local Chambers, and in the following November 

 .a motion expressing general approval of the Bill was adopted. 

 No further steps were taken, however, and the Bill was not 

 even introduced into Parliament. 



The question was next raised at a Council meeting on 9th 

 June, 1903, when Colonel W. W. Maude carried a resolution 

 on the unsatisfactory state of the law. A new Committee was 

 then appointed, with Mr. Christopher Middleton as Chair- 



