and  the  Cause  and  Prevention  of  Floods.  405 
ing  the  neglect  of  past  ages,  and  adapting  the  rivers  to  modern 
requirements.  On  the  one  hand  it  is  contended  that  as  the 
rivers  are  the  natural  outlets  for  the  surplus  rainfall  which  falls 
on  every  acre  of  land,  all  lands  should  pay  in  proportion  to 
their  rateable  value.  It  may  be  true  that  moorland  or 
pastures  in  a high  district  require  no  drainage,  and  would  be 
equally  serviceable  whether  rivers  existed  or  not  ; but  against 
this  it  is  urged  that,  as  this  land  sends  its  water  on  to  the 
lower  plains,  it  ought  to  bear  its  share  of  maintaining  the  water- 
courses in  the  same  way  that  it  contributes  towards  highways, 
towards  the  maintenance  of  the  poor,  of  education,  &c.,  none  of 
which  are  requisite  for  land  which  has  no  houses  on  it,  and  the 
only  road  required  is  one  sufficient  to  drive  the  mountain  sheep 
over  occasionally.  Exemption  is  further  pleaded  for  the  high 
lands  on  the  ground  that,  being  situated  far  away  from  flooded 
districts,  the  rainfall  escapes  from  them,  and  under  no  circum- 
stances can  they  be  flooded  ; that  they  have  an  ancient  and 
prescriptive  right  to  the  rivers  ; and  that,  if  the  lands  at  the 
lower  end  are  inundated  occasionally,  they  are  only  in  the 
condition  in  which  nature  made  them,  these  low  lands  being 
the  sinkholes  to  receive  the  water  poured  from  the  adjacent  high 
land  ; and  that,  if  for  the  individual  profit  of  the  owners  they 
have  been  embanked  and  cultivated,  it  has  been  done  at  their 
own  risk,  and  they  must  now  take  the  consequence.  Therefore, 
to  put  these  high  lands  under  taxation,  for  the  improvement  from 
which  they  will  not  benefit,  would  be  an  arbitrary  and  unjust 
interference  with  private  rights.  To  this  it  is  replied  ; that  it 
is  the  action  of  the  owners  of  the  high  lands  that  has  brought 
about  the  necessity  for  further  legislation  and  consequent 
taxation.  By  improved  drainage  the  rainfall  is  voided  more 
quickly,  and  poured  more  rapidly  into  the  lower  reaches,  and 
where  these  have  been  improved,  the  works  were  designed  for 
a natural  escape  of  the  rainfall  ; and  that  it  is  only  due  to  the 
more  rapid  discharge,  owing  to  improvements  carried  out  on 
the  high  lands  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  modern  system 
of  agriculture,  that  they  have  now  become  inefficient ; while 
it  is  not  asked  that  the  high  lands  should  pay  for  works 
which  are  solely  for  the  improvements  of  these  low  lands,  yet 
they  should  bear  their  fair  share  of  maintaining  the  water- 
way in  a condition  to  carry  off  the  rainfall  poured  into  it. 
That  the  great  improvements  which  have  in  most  cases  been 
carried  out  by  river  authorities  at  the  outfalls  may  fairly  be  set 
against  any  prescriptive  right  of  drainage  by  the  owners  of 
high  lands.  That  if  these  high  lands  are  far  above  and  away 
from  the  portion  of  the  river  where  floods  occur,  it  may  fairly 
be  answered  that  an  outfall  for  the  rainfall  is  an  absolute 
