parishes. By the
Local Government Act 1894, there were transferred to the district
council of every rural district all the powers, duties and liabilities
of every highway authority, surveyor or highway board within their
district, and the former highway authorities ceased to exist. The
highway authority in every district, rural as well as urban, is
therefore the district council. Of the chief duties of a district
council with regard to highways, the first and most obvious is the
duty to repair. This duty was formerly enforceable by indictment of
the inhabitants of the parish, but it is not quite clear whether this
procedure is applicable, now that the liability to repair is
transferred to a council representing a wider area. Under the Highway
Acts it is enforceable by summary proceedings before justices and by
orders of the county council, but in either case, if the liability to
repair is disputed, that question has to be decided on indictment
preferred against the highway authority alleged to be in default. In a
rural district any parish council may complain to the county council
that the district council have made default in keeping any highway in
repair, and the county council may thereupon transfer to themselves
and execute the powers of the district council at the cost of the
latter body, or they may make an order requiring the district council
to perform their duty, or they may appoint some person to do so at the
cost of the district council. It is important to observe, however,
that an action does not lie against a district council in respect of
the failure to repair a highway even at the suit of a person who has
thereby been injured. The reason assigned for this doctrine is that
the council as highway surveyor stand in the same position as the
inhabitants of the parish, against whom such an action would not lie.
The district council are, however, liable for any injury caused
through negligence on the part of their officers or servants in
carrying out the work of repair.

Streets.

But while rural as well as urban district councils have the powers and
duties of surveyors of highways, the provisions of the Public Health
Acts relating to streets apply only in urban districts, except in so
far as the Local Government Board may by order have conferred urban
powers upon a rural district council. These provisions have now to be
referred to.