authorities, may be exercised and performed by any such authority either by themselves, or, if so authorised by the order establishing that authority or by special order, through any authorised undertakers; and, where any such authority act through any such undertakers, the undertakers shall have, to such extent as may be provided by such order as aforesaid, the powers and duties of the authority under the 1919 Act and this Act.

VARIATION OF AREAS OF POWER COMPANIES.-Section 17 provides that the Commissioners may, by the order establishing a joint authority, or, after the establishment of a joint authority, by an order made on the application of that authority, exclude from the area of supply of any power company, subject to such terms, conditions, and reservations as the Commissioners may think fit:

(a) Any part of that area in which any right of the power company to supply electricity is subject to the absolute veto of some other authorised undertaker, and where the order provides for or is made conditional on the transfer to the joint authority of the generating station from which a supply of electricity is given to the part of the area in question;

(b) any part of that area which, at the time of the local inquiry on the scheme to which the order establishing the joint authority gives effect, or, as the case may be, at the time of the application for the order, is not being supplied by the power company, and which, it appears to the Commissioners, could be better served by the joint authority themselves, or by that authority acting through any authorised undertakers; and

(c) with the consent of the power company, any other part of the area of supply of the power company;

and in any such case the order may confer on the power company, subject to such conditions as the Commissioners may prescribe, power to supply electricity for all purposes in any other part of their area of supply, which does not at the time form part of the area of supply of any authorised distributors provided that, where, on the application of a joint authority, it is proposed to make such an order (not being an order confirming a scheme for the organisation of

an electricity district under section 7 of the 1919 Act), and the power company, or any county council, local authority, or authorised undertakers, which appear to the Commissioners to be interested, object to the proposed order, effect shall not be given to the proposals, except by a special order under section 26 of the 1919 Act. Where, in pursuance of this provision, any part of the area of supply of a power company is by order excluded from such area of supply, the exclusion is not to affect any rights of the power company, existing immediately before the making of the order, to lay mains through the part so excluded, and is not to prevent the power company from giving a supply of electricity, at any point in their remaining area, for the purpose of haulage or traction on any railway, tramway, or canal, and for the purpose of lighting vehicles and vessels used on any such railway, tramway, or canal, which they could have supplied if the part of the area, excluded under this section, had remained part of their area of supply.

ADJUSTMENT OF REVENUE AND CHARGES OF JOINT AUTHORITIES.-Section 18 regulates the course to be adopted by a joint authority in fixing the prices charged for electricity. Subject to such directions as may be given by the Commissioners, they are to be so fixed that, over a term of years to be approved by the Commissioners, the receipts of the authority on income account shall be sufficient to cover their expenditure on income account (including interest and sinking fund charges), with such margin as the Commissioners may allow. If the receipts on revenue account in any year are insufficient to meet the charges payable out of revenue in that year, the deficiency may, unless provided for out of a reserve fund, be apportioned amongst the authorised undertakers, within the district of the joint authority, who take a supply of electricity from that authority, in proportion to the number of units supplied to them in that year. In any case, however, in which it appears to the joint authority that the deficiency in any year can, by a reasonable adjustment of charges, or otherwise, be made good out of moneys receivable by the authority in any succeeding year or years, or that the

deficiency is so small as to justify postponement of any apportionment, the authority are to refrain from making any such apportionment, and may include such deficiency in the charges payable out of revenue in any succeeding year or years.

USE OF ELECTRICITY TAKEN FOR TRACTION PURPOSES.— Section 24 provides that, notwithstanding anything contained in any Act or order, electricity supplied by a joint authority or power company within their district to any company or authority, being the owners or lessees of a railway, tramway, dock, harbour, or canal undertaking, may be used by the company or authority receiving the supply for the purposes of haulage or traction, or for lighting vehicles or vessels, used on the railway, tramway, dock, harbour or canal, on any part of the system of such company or authority.

SUPPLY OF ELECTRICITY FROM RAILWAY AND TRAMWAY GENERATING STATIONS.-Section 25 provides that, notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any special Act or order, it shall be lawful for the owners or lessees of any railway generating station, or of any generating station erected under statutory authority for the purpose of working tramways or light railways, to supply electricity therefrom upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed :

(a) to a joint electricity authority; or
(b) to an authorised undertaker; or

(c) to any consumer, subject, in the case of premises situate
within the area of supply of an authorised undertaker,
to the consent of that undertaker.

The supply, however, may not be given without the consent of the Commissioners, who are to have regard to the interests of any undertakers, other than electrical undertakers, affected thereby, and may impose conditions, which must be observed. Moreover, if the supply is to be given to any authorised distributors whose undertaking is in the area of a power company, the consent of that company must be obtained; and if it is to be given to premises

within the district of a joint authority, and not within the area of any other authorised undertakers, the consent of that joint authority must be obtained. The Commissioners may, by order under the Electricity (Supply) Acts, grant powers for breaking up roads, railways, and tramways, so far as necessary for the purposes of such a supply.

MINOR PROVISIONS.-Sections 26 and 27 contain subsidiary provisions for facilitating the winding up of companies whose undertakings are transferred to joint electricity authorities, and the payment off of debentures or debenture stock of such companies.

CHAPTER XII.

LAND DRAINAGE AND IRRIGATION.

Drainage and Sewerage Operations Generally.Drainage and sewerage operations range themselves under two distinct classes; firstly, operations, conducted primarily in the interests of public health, for removing impure fluid matter from houses and other premises, and disposing of it when removed; secondly, operations, conducted primarily in the interests of the protection of property and the improvement of agriculture, for controlling and directing, by artificial channels and other works, the flow of water through and from land. The carrying on of both classes of operation may have irrigation associated with it as an incidental accompaniment.

Sewage Irrigation Farms.-Public health drainage and sewerage operations partake, for the most part, of the character of local government administration, rather than the sort of business undertaking with which we are dealing in these lectures. Where, however, a local authority disposes of the sewage of its district by means of the irrigation of land, it does, to that extent, carry on a business undertaking. Land is acquired for the purposes of a sewage farm, and through this land pipes and channels are constructed, with a view to distributing the sewage, and allowing it gradually to percolate through the soil, in such a way as at once to filter and purify the effluent, and to fertilise the land. The land so treated is either farmed by the authority, who, in that case, sell the agricultural produce, and pay the cost of the farming, or is leased to a farmer, who pays a rent to the authority. The principal enactment giving powers for this purpose is section 27 of the Public Health Act, 1875, which enables a local authority,