694 ebpobt— 1878. 



quantity to feed springs and afford a supply to brooks and watercourses, droughts 

 have become more frequent. Fen experience here again suggests the remedy. In 

 all the main watercourses and large arterial drains means are provided for holding 

 up the water during the summer and periods of drought, and the streams thus 

 become both carriers and reservoirs. The level of the water throughout the 

 whole of the divisional ditches in the Fenland, and consequently of the soil itself, 

 is always maintained at a fixed level, the loss by evaporation, &c, being supplied 

 from the highland streams. Moisture is thus always within reach of the roots of 

 the plants, even in the greatest droughts, and lands which would otherwise only 

 be regarded as medium soils yield large and abundant crops. The writer is of 

 opinion that the use of water in the cultivation of soil, and its value for purposes 

 of irrigation is not sufficiently esteemed, and thinks that mills have received a 

 great deal of undeserved blame for holding up the water, the effect of which is of 

 the greatest benefit to the surrounding soil, when subject to proper regulations 

 as to floods. The objection on sanitary grounds to the storage of stagnant water 

 in the watercourses of the country is met by referring to the result in the Fens, the 

 health and physique of the inhabitants of which compares favourably with every 

 other part of the kingdom. By the erection of flood-gates, or properly constructed 

 weirs across the rivers, a constant supply would be maintained to compensate for 

 the excess carried oft' in floods, and to provide water for domestic, agricultural,, 

 and economic purposes. The value of water as a motive power in farm work is 

 also contended for, and the saving of human labour and coals by this means 

 pointed out. 



To carry out the necessary improvements for regulating the channels of the 

 rivers, and their future conservancy, a plan of administration adopted in certain 

 Fen districts is proposed. Each watershed of a main river to be subject to one 

 Conservancy Board, the whole watershed being divided into districts, the area 

 of which is to be determined by the watersheds of tributary streams or other phy- 

 sical causes ; the sub-districts to be placed under the jurisdiction of commissioners 

 elected by the occupiers of the land in proportion to their rateable value, and who 

 shall have the charge of all local interests ; the general Conservancy Board to be 

 elected from amongst the members of the District Boards, each sending one or 

 more according to tbe area they represent, and to have control only over the main 

 stream from its source to its outfall, and of all banks, sluices, and other works affecting 

 it. Where districts are already in existence they would continue to exercise their 

 rights and powers, except so far as they interfered with the main stream, and have 

 their representative on the General Board. By this means the due care of local 

 wants and interests, and unity of action throughout would be secured, and exist- 

 ing interests conserved so far as would be compatible with the general good. 



The means for carrying out improvements required, and for future administra- 

 tion and maintenance, in the writer's opinion, shoidd be provided by a tax on the 

 rateable value of the whole area of land within the watershed, whether rural or 

 urban. As every acre of land receives and contributes its quota of the rain-fall, 

 so it shoidd fairly provide its share of the cost of maintaining the channels for 

 carrying this off. The objection that high lands can never be injured, and are so 

 far away from the flooded districts that they do not require any improvement of 

 the river, is met by the answer, that it is owing to the drainage carried out on 

 these very lands that water is now poured so rapidly into the rivers as to cause the 

 floods, and they ought, therefore, fairly to contribute towards the remedy for the 

 evil they have caused. As to their distance from the outfall — the greater the dis- 

 tance, the greater use they make of the river, the water from the under drains of 

 high iands at the head of a river having, perhaps, to travel a hundred times the 

 length along its channel as compared to land within the area suffering from the 

 floods. The objection that these lands have a prescriptive right to drain, and that 

 to impose a new tax upon them would be an unjust burden, is met by the reply 

 that the altered circumstances of the country necessitate fresh burdens, and the 

 rates for police, education, and sanitary purposes are adduced as instances of novel 

 burdens brought about by higher civilisation. Towns, it is contended, should bear- 

 also their share of taxation. Thorough drainage is a first essential for health, and 

 this cannot be effected without a good outfall. By sewering the streets and bring- 



