17. _Conservators may accept and hold land for certain purposes._--In addition to their existing powers to take and hold land, it shall be lawful for the Conservators to accept and hold any land which any person may offer to them for dedication to public uses in connection with the purposes of this Act, upon such terms and conditions as they may see fit, and it shall be lawful for the Corporation of the City of London, or the Metropolitan Board of Works, and for the University of Oxford, or, subject to the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, so far as they are applicable, for the Corporation of the City of Oxford, or any corporation or other person, to give, grant, dedicate, convey, or devise any land or right over land to the extent of their estates and interests respectively, unto the Conservators, for the purpose of enabling the public to use such and or any part thereof as a public highway, or as a place of public resort, or for the purpose of creating bathing-places or camping-grounds or landing-places, or for any other purposes connected with this Act, any of the provisions of the Act passed in the ninth year of the reign of King George the Second, chapter thirty-six, or any other statute or any rule of law to the contrary notwithstanding. 18. _Acquisition by agreement of right of abstracting water from the river._--Where any company or person is entitled under any Act of Parliament, grant, custom, or otherwise, to any right of abstracting or appropriating water which might otherwise flow or find its way into the river, it shall be lawful for any such person on the one hand and the Conservators or any other person on the other hand, to enter into and carry into effect an agreement or agreements for the conveyance of such right to the Conservators; and every such right may be conveyed to the Conservators by deed, and shall as from the date of such conveyance be absolutely extinguished to the intent that such water shall thereafter be allowed to flow into the river. And it shall be lawful for any of the companies supplying water within the Metropolis to make contributions out of their capital or revenue in aid of the acquisition and extinguishment of any such right, and for the Conservators to accept such contributions and contributions from any other person or persons and employ them for that purpose.