"Rackrent:" "Month :" "Commissioners of the treasury:" "Superior courts:" son, or who would so receive the same if such lands or premises were let at a rackrent: The expression "rackrent" shall mean rent which is not less than two-thirds of the full net And the "full net annual value" shall be taken (a) See 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 76, s. 109. (b) This definition is taken from the Parochial Assessment Act, 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 96, s. 1, and is what is set out in the column of the rate in the schedule headed Rateable Value. (c) But by the statute 12 & 13 Vict. c. 89, two of the lords commissioners of the treasury are empowered to act. (d) It is to be presumed that this word is intended to be exclusive, as it is difficult to know what other courts than those mentioned can be considered as superior courts. ter (e) and the Court of Pleas of the county The word "justice" shall mean any justice of the "Justice :" peace acting for the place in which the matter or any part of the matter, as the case may be, arises: tices :"" The expression "two justices" shall mean two or "Two jusmore justices assembled and acting together in petty sessions, or one stipendiary or police magistrate acting in any police court, for the place in which the matter or any part of the matter, as the case may be, requiring the cognizance of "two justices" arises (f): general or quarter sessions:" The expression "court of general or quarter "Court of sessions" shall mean the court of general or quarter sessions of the peace having jurisdiction over the whole or any part (g) of the district or place, as the case may be, in which the matter requiring the cognizance of the "court of general or quarter sessions" arises: tors :" The word "arbitrators" shall include a single "Arbitraarbitrator; and the words "arbitrators" and "arbitrator" shall include an umpire (h): The word "oath" shall mean and include an "Oath :" affirmation in the case of Quakers, and a decla (e) Quare, whether the court of the chancellor of the duchy is included. The same interpretation is found in other statutes. (f) See also the provisions contained in 21 & 22 Vict. c. 73, s. 1, which confirm this interpretation. (g) As where the district runs into two counties two courts of quarter sessions will have jurisdiction over the respective parts, it seems that this definition would give authority to both and consequently to either. () As this cannot be universally applicable, the interpretation will be modified by the context. "Corporate borough:" 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 76: "District:" "Corporate district :" ration in the case of persons allowed by law (i) to make a declaration in lieu of an oath : The expression "corporate borough" (k) shall mean any corporate borough mentioned in the schedules annexed to an Act passed in the sixth year of the reign of King William the Fourth, intituled "An Act for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations in England and Wales," and any borough incorporated by charter granted or to be granted in pursuance of that or any subsequent Act: The word "district" shall mean the entire area, places, or parts of places comprised within the limits of any district to which this Act or any part thereof shall be applied by order in council, or provisional order of the general board of health sanctioned by parliament (1): The expression "corporate district" shall mean a district in which the powers, authorities, and duties of the local board of health of the district are exercised and executed by the council of a corporate borough: (i) See 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 49, and c. 82. (k) By 12 & 13 Vict. c. 94, s. 10, it was declared and enacted, that the expression "corporate borough" whenever used in the Public Health Act, 1848, shall be construed to include any city, borough, port, cinque port, or town corporate named in the schedules annexed to an Act passed in the sixth year of the reign of King William the Fourth, intituled "An Act to provide for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations in England and Wales," and to any city, borough, port, cinque port, or town corporate incorporated by charter granted or to be granted in pursuance of that or any subsequent Act; and the word "burgesses" wherever used in the said Public Health Act shall be construed to mean citizens in the case of a city. A similar definition of the word borough is given in 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 2, post. (See the definition of the term "limits of the district " in 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 7, post. porate dis The expression "non-corporate district" shall "Non-cormean a district in which the powers, authori- frict :" ties, and duties of the local board of health of the district are not exercised and executed by the council of a corporate borough: The word "street" shall apply to and include "Street:” any highway (m) (not being a turnpike road), and any road, public bridge (not being a county bridge), lane, footway, square, court, alley, passage (n), whether a thoroughfare or not, and the parts of any such highway, road, bridge, lane, footway, square, court, alley, or passage within the limits of any district (o): The word "house" shall include schools, factories, “House:” and other buildings in which more than twenty persons are employed at one time (p): The word "drain" shall mean and include any "Drain :" drain of and used for the drainage of one building only, or premises within the same curtilage, and made merely for the purpose of communicating therefrom with a cesspool or other like receptacle for drainage, or with a sewer into which the drainage of two or more buildings or premises occupied by different persons is conveyed (g): (m) The 15 & 16 Vict. c. 42, s. 16, interprets the word "highway," but only as it is used in ss. 68, 69, hereafter. (n) See in Le Neve v. Vestry of Mile End Old Town, 22 Jur. 660, an illustration of the word street. (0) See 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 7, post. (P) See the cases upon the parliamentary and municipal franchises, and upon settlement under the Poor Law for illustrations of the word "house." Prima facie a house means a dwelling house; Surman v. Darley, 14 M. & W. 181; or a building calculated for use as such; 8 Scott. Rep. 794, 949; but the above interpretation extends the signification. The 21& 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 34, interprets the term new buildings. (9) There may be instances of drains not comprehended The word "sewer" shall mean and include sewers and drains of every description (a), except drains to which the word "drain" interpreted as aforesaid applies: The term "slaughter-house" shall mean and include the buildings and places commonly called slaughter-houses and knackers yards, and any building or place used for slaughtering cattle, horses, or animals of any description for sale (b): The expression "waterworks company" shall mean any corporation, person, or company of persons supplying or who may hereafter supply water for their own profit: The term "waterworks" shall include streams, springs, wells, pumps, reservoirs, cisterns, tanks, aqueducts, cuts, sluices, mains, pipes, culverts, engines, and all machinery, lands, buildings, and things for supplying or used for supplying water, also the stock in trade (c) of any waterworks company: within this definition, as where there is a direct communication from a house to a river or canal, or the sea itself. (a) In Sutton v. The Mayor of Norwich, 31 L. T. 389, Kindersley, V. C., observed: "The word sewer comes from the word "to sew," i. e. to drain, and has a much more extended signification (than drain), embracing works on the largest scale, such as draining the fens of Lincolnshire by means of canals, &c. In the common sense of the term it means a large and generally underground passage for fluid and feculent matter from a house or houses to some other locality, but it does not comprise a cesspool for the purpose of retaining the sewage, whether as a simple deposit, or to be converted into manure, or other useful purposes." (b) See Elias v. Nightingale, 22 Jur. 166. (c) These words are very extensive, and not easy to be understood, because it would seem unnecessary to apply the word waterworks to anything not mentioned in the previous enumeration. |