Law of Highways, COMPRISING THE HIGHWAY ACTS, 1835, 1862, 1864, THE SOUTH WALES HIGHWAY ACTS, & OTHER [STATUTES, SHAW AND SONS, FETTER LANE AND CRANE COURT, E.C Law Printers and Publishers. PREFACE TO THE TWELFTH EDITION. THE Law of Highways is in a very complicated state, as there are now so many highway authorities and so many statutes and different laws relating to the subject. Since 1870, when the eleventh edition of this work was published, there have been important enactments passed relating to highways. By "The Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act, 1878," which, for the sake of brevity, is in this work usually referred to as the H. Act, 1878, the following provisions and alterations have been made: Justices of a county in quarter sessions when forming or altering the boundaries of highway districts are to form them, as far as practicable, so as to be coincident in area with rural sanitary districts. When so formed, rural sanitary authorities may obtain an order enabling them to exercise the powers of a highway board within their district. Upon the making of such an order any existing highway board for the district is dissolved. All expenses incurred by a rural sanitary authority in the performance of their duties as a highway board are deemed to be general expenses of such authority within the meaning of the Public Health Act, 1875, ss. 229, 230. When the rural sanitary authority avail themselves of these provisions and obtain an order enabling them to exercise the powers of a highway board, there will be but one authority, i. e. the board of guardians, having the control of both poor and highways within the union. All expenses incurred by a highway board established under H. Act, 1862, &c., in maintaining highways are now in general chargeable on the district fund instead of to the respective parishes. The accounts of the highway authority are to be made up and balanced to the 25th day of March in each year. The Loc. Gov. Board have power to prescribe the form in which they are to be made up, and they are to be audited by a poor law auditor. By the H. Act, 1878, s. 13, certain disturnpiked roads are declared to be main roads, and one half of the expenses (a) (a) By 44 & 45 Vict. c. 72 (passed on 27th August, 1881), s. 1, from and after the passing of this Act sect. 13 of the H. Act, 1878) post, p. 266), shall be read and construed as though the following words were inserted therein : "Provided further, that no part of such expenses incurred from and after the 29th day of September, 1881, shall be included in any precept or warrant issued by the county authority for the county of Southampton for the levying or collecting within the Isle of Wight of the county ratę for the said county." of their maintenance is to be paid out of the county rate; and by sect. 15 of the Act, a road which is a medium of communication between great towns, or a thoroughfare to a railway station or otherwise may be ordered by the justices of the county at quarter sessions to be a main road, in which case one half of the expense of its maintenance will be paid out of the county rate. Justices of the county at quarter sessions may order a highway authority to maintain or repair a highway where default has been made in this respect, and if such order is not complied with may appoint some one to perform such duty, &c. New provisions have been made as to unnecessary highways being declared not repairable at the public expense. Extraordinary expenses of repairing highways incurred by a highway authority by reason of extraordinary weight or traffic may be recovered in a summary manner from the person by whose order such weight or traffic was conducted. New provisions have been made as to the justices of the county at quarter sessions making bye-laws for prohibiting or regulating the use of waggons, &c., with wheels of which the fellies or tires are not of the prescribed width, &c. New provisions have been made as to the use of locomotives on highways-as to their weight, construction of their wheels, licensing same, &c. |