THE TWEED 15 



Secretary for Scotland for the formation of a Joint-Committee to 

 enforce the Eivers Pollution Prevention Act of 1876. It was then 

 found that it was doubtful if the County Council of Northumberland 

 or other authority in England could combine with authorities in 

 Scotland for this purpose ; . . . Under these circumstances the 

 Eivers Pollution Prevention (Border Councils) Act, 1898 (61 and 62 

 Viet., ch. 34) was passed in 1898. This Act provides that where a 

 river or any tributary thereof is situate partly in England and partly 

 in Scotland, the Local Government Board for England and the 

 Secretary for Scotland, by Provisional Order made on the application 

 of the Council of any of the counties concerned, may together con- 

 stitute a Joint-Committee or other body representing all or any 

 of the counties through or by which such river or any specified 

 portion or tributary thereof passes, and may confer on such com- 

 mittee or body all the powers of a sanitary authority under the 

 Eivers Pollution Prevention Act, 1876. . . . 



"In 1905 the Commissioners of the river Tweed made representa- 

 tions to several County Authorities drawing their attention to the 

 polluted state of the river, and expressing the hope that the councils 

 would take up the question of river purification at an early date, and 

 would proceed to exercise the powers in that direction which were at 

 their command." 



As a result of this, the County Council of Eoxburgh took action, 

 and applied to the Local Government Board of England and the 

 Secretary for Scotland to constitute a joint committee. The two 

 departments named then ordered an investigation and report on the 

 actual pollutions which exist, and Messrs. Wheaton and Curphey 

 were instructed in this matter, and furnished the report from which 

 quotations are here made. 



All those interested in the purification of this noble river should 

 realise the value of the action taken by Eoxburgh County Council 

 and the Tweed Commissioners in this matter. 



If I might venture to go a little further in this matter, I would 

 say that what is ultimately needed is the establishment of a standard 

 of purity, and the creation of an official authority capable of testing 

 and controlling the manner in which the standard is maintained. In 

 their last report the Eoyal Commission on Sewage Disposal state that 

 they are satisfied with regard to the basis upon which such a standard 

 should be made ; that it must take cognizance of two points : 1st, 

 the amount of suspended solid matter in the water, which provision- 

 ally they suggest should not be greater than 3 parts in 100,000 : and 



