Trunk Drainage. 
67 
system of drains for caiTjing- off the spent floods. The Act 
allows proprietors or occupiers to use and divert the river water 
for the purpose, provided such use does not hinder the drainage 
of other lands or injure any other party.* 
The Commissioners have a discretionary power as to the works in 
the Upper Valley, to carry them out or not to the full extent 
autliorised by the Act. Because the district presents a compli- 
cation of varying circumstances in different parts : and it is only 
when the main works have reached Peterborough, and as tliey pro- 
ceed upward along tliis valley of ])lots and crooked off-spurs of 
flat land, that it will become gradually apparent what minor works 
are best adapted to the separate localities. Tlie 16,000 acres form- 
ing this division of the undertaking, together with certain mea- 
dows below Peterborough, will pay an " outfall-tax" of Is. per 
acre, and are also to pay a " district-tax " for their own interior 
works at the rate of 5s. per acre per annum. Both these rates are 
to he apportioned accordiny to the degrees of henejit received hy the 
lands from the proposed improvements, tlie graduation to be fixed 
by valuers or referees, who will most probably have levels of the 
ground taken in order to guide them. 
I have not yet mentioned the principle upon which the Com- 
missioners are appointed. This of course is an important matter ; 
as upon a choice of qualified individuals at first, and a fair 
representation of all the uniting interests for the future, depends 
the just and proper exercise of the vast powers and authority 
conferred by the Act of Parliament. Thirty-seven influential 
gentlemen, including noblemen, clergy, gentry, merchants, land- 
owners, and farmers, are named in the Act as the " First Com- 
missioners," and are constituted a body corporate for its execu- 
tion ; and these are divided into three groups, supposed to 
represent the " First " and " Second Districts," into which the 
Upper Valley is partitioned, and the " Third District " lying 
below Peterborough. But directly the lands liable to be taxed 
have been fully ascertained, and the taxes duly apportioned, every 
person possessed of 50 acres, either of the Upper Valley mea- 
dows or the Wash lands, will be or may appoint a commissioner 
by virtue of the Act. Every person possessing 200 acres may 
* The water of the Nene contains much more inorganic and organic matter than 
any of the springs in the neighbourhood that have been examined. Fi'om the ana- 
lysis it appears that an imperial gallon contains, of — 
Carbonate of lime 4 2' 10 grains 
Sulphate of lime 14-37 „ 
Muriate of lime 4'01 „ 
Muriate of magnesia 'SS „ 
Muriate of soda 2-20 ,, 
63-53 grains. 
f2 
