“To have charge of the repairs of all highways, and to perform all duties devolving on the council as surveyors of highways.”
The necessity for these duties are obvious when we turn to the Public Health Act 1875, and read the following sections:—[6]
“Every urban authority shall within their district, exclusively of any other person, execute the office of and be surveyor of highways, and have, exercise, and be subject to all the powers, authorities, duties, and liabilities of surveyors of highways under the law for the time being in force, save so far as such powers, authorities, or duties are or may be inconsistent with the provisions of this Act; every urban authority shall also have, exercise, and be subject to all the powers, authorities, duties, and liabilities which by the Highway Act 1835, or any Act amending the same, are vested in and given to the inhabitants in vestry assembled of any parish within their district.
“All ministerial acts required by any Act of Parliament to be done by or to the surveyor of highways may be done by or to the surveyor of the urban authority, or by or to such other person as they may appoint” (38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 144).
“All streets being or which at any time become highways repairable by the inhabitants at large within any urban district, and the pavements, stones, and other materials thereof, and all buildings, implements, and other things provided for the purposes thereof, shall vest in and be under the control of the urban authority. The urban authority shall from time to time cause all such streets to be levelled, paved, metalled, flagged, channelled, altered, and repaired as occasion may require; they may from time to time cause the soil of any such street to be raised, lowered, or altered as they may think fit, and may place and may keep in repair fences and posts for the safety of foot-passengers. Any person who without the consent of the urban authority wilfully displaces, or takes up, or who injures the pavement, stones, material, fences, or posts of, or the trees in, any such street shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds, and to a further penalty not exceeding five shillings for every square foot of pavement, stones, or other materials so displaced, taken up, or injured; he shall also be liable, in the case of any injury to trees, to pay to the local authority such amount of compensation as the court may award” (38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 149).
The duties thus devolving upon the town surveyor by reason of these sections and the orders of the council are very considerable. The following table gives a list of the principal subjects which will require his attention; all of which will be considered in due course in this book.
List of Duties devolving upon a Town Surveyor as “Surveyor of Highways.”
(1.) The construction and maintenance of highways or streets, including—
(a.) Roads formed of broken stones or “metal,” commonly called macadamised roadways;
(b.) Streets paved with granite cubes or setts;