WEEDS. 6 1 



By the judicious use of drags and alternate Annoyance 

 raising and lowering of hatches, they are, in weeds. 

 time, passed down to the next water below ; 

 then, with the addition of the weeds cut on this 

 next water, passed on and on in ever increasing 

 bulk, until eventually the unfortunate proprietor 

 of water many miles below has to deal with an 

 enormous accumulation of many thousands of 

 tons of malodorous partially decayed vegetation. 



If, too, he has the misfortune to be on a 

 tributary of the Thames and within the limit of 

 distance over which the Thames Conservancy 

 has jurisdiction, he is prohibited under severe 

 penalties from sending these weeds further down. 

 If, by any extraordinary circumstance, officials 

 have been successfully roused from their general 

 lethargic condition, it is quite possible that they 

 will try and force this unlucky individual to drag 

 the huge heap of weeds out of the river at his 

 own expense and turn them on to the adjoining 

 meadows. It is, of course, a monstrous and 

 most inequitable charge to be imposed upon 

 him, and whether he has a legal remedy or not, 

 morally, he certainly has a grave cause of com- 

 plaint at the unfair and unneighbourly action of 

 those who have sent the weeds down. 



Looking at the question from a common sense Legal aspect 

 point of view, he ought to be able to prevent question, 

 this course of conduct on the part of the 



