1920.] 



Land Drainage in Anglesey. 



1173 



Ministry of Agriculture, and hence any calculations made 

 upon the basis of the original draft are of no value. 



The Order has further been criticised on the ground that it 

 does not include in the rateable area of the Ouse Drainage 

 Board any lands situated at a greater height than 8 ft. above 

 the highest recorded flood level. It is considered by many 

 that the whole of the lands from which water finds its way 

 into a river should, in justice, be rated for the maintenance 

 of that river. This view has been urged repeatedly before 

 both Houses of Parliament, and the subject has been fully 

 considered by a Committee of the House of Lords. The result, 

 how^ever, is that the general law relating to land drainage 

 remains as it has always been since the year 1531, and the 

 fundamental principle of that law is that no land can be rated 

 for the maintenance of a river unless it derives some degree of 

 benefit from such maintenance. The best modern agricultural 

 opinion is that such benefit cannot be said to extend to land 

 lying at any greater height than (approximately) 8 ft. above 

 flood level, and for that reason no land outside the " 8-ft. 

 line " is included within the boundaries of new Drainage 

 Districts. 



Generally, it is important that all who are interested in the 

 question of the drainage of the Ouse valley should bear in mind 

 that the new^ Drainage Board will be entirely free to shape its 

 own policy. At the same time it will be subject to the re- 

 strictions which are imposed by the general law and by the 

 Ouse Drainage Order itself, as to expenditure on new works 

 and the improvement of existing works. Finally, it will be an 

 elective body, and will, as such, carry out the wishes of the 



ratepayers b}' whom it will be appointed. 



****** 



The four photographs reproduced, taken in 1918-19, show- 

 two sections of the work carried out by the Anglesey Agiicifl- 

 . . tural Executive Committee under the 

 Anglesey^^ powers of the Defence of the Realm Regula- 

 tions for the drainage of ]\Ialldraeth Marsh. 

 Before the work was taken in hand by the Committee, practically 

 all the drains in the Marsh were in the condition shown in 

 the two earlier photographs. The total length of drains 

 and ditches cleaned out by the Committee in the way 

 illustrated cannot be given exactly, but it is estimated that 

 at least 4,000 acres of land in the Marsh have received 

 substantial benefit. The total cost of the work amounted to 

 approximately £2,400. 



