Rye and Derwent Drainage. 



131 



and primitive function as arteries of drainage, by the removal of 

 obstructions from whatever cause existing. 



It is an old saying, " What is everybody's business is "nobody's," 

 and the operations of district drainage are extensive, and seldom 

 come w^ithin the power of an individual to effect : hence it too fre- 

 quently happens that works of great public utility are unat- 

 tempted, for want of that combination of interest and intensity of 

 purpose, which is necessary to secure general co-operation and 

 ultimate success. It is under the special authority of Parliament 

 only that extensive works of this description can be undertaken ; 

 until some general drainage act, to be carried out according to the 

 designs and under the inspection of competent commissioners, 

 be framed and passed, in order to avoid the expense of indi- 

 vidual or special application, and to facilitate those improvements 

 of property, which both the science of agriculture and public 

 health so imperatively demand. How many extensive and fertile 

 valleys are there, the drainage of which is confined entirely to 

 sluggish meandering streams upon which, at every few feet of 

 fall, there stands a corn-mill of perhaps only a few horses'-power, 

 the total value of which, in fee simple, is not worth as much as 

 the amount of the damage which is occasionally done by a single 

 flood, letting alone the permanent injury which is occasioned by 

 the damming up of the outfall, in preventing the proper drainage 

 of the surrounding land ; and if even the outfall of the drains 

 were, in certain cases, proposed to be carried below the mill- 

 dams, it would, in many instances, require the co-operation, 

 possibly, of several proprietors to effect it. Let any one travel 

 from the Tyne to the Bristol Channel, down the rich red sand- 

 stone valleys, and observe the condition of the streams as to 

 drainage, and he will have scope enough for his imagination in 

 depicting the benefits which would result if all the mill-dams and 

 artificial obstructions were removed, and the waters were allowed 

 to regain the level of their natural outfall. 



The district which has been the scene of the operations of the 

 Rye and Derwent Drainage Commission, the proceedings of 

 which I am about to detail, is one amongst many hundreds, where 

 all the evils of obstructed outfall were demonstrable, and yet 

 where all the benefits of improved drainage were, to a great 

 extent, attainable, simply by the removal of artificial obstructions, 

 such as dams, locks, waths, 6cc., from its rivers; and it offers so 

 good an instance of both the requirements and the benefits of 

 District Drainage, that I shall be excused offering such a descrip- 

 tion of the locality, as may enable others to judge and compare 

 whether the operations of this Commission may be applicable to 

 other districts in which they may be interested. 



In the North Riding of Yorkshire is the valley, or rather wide 



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