It has been reported to the Town Council that you have neglected to obliterate the old number of your premises, No. Street, after receiving notice of a new number being allotted to such premises by the Town Council, whereby you have incurred a penalty of 40_s._ The duplication of numbers in the same street was found to be the occasion of so much inconvenience, that the Council were obliged to re-number the street in question, and it is manifest that if a number allotted to another house is retained by you, the inconvenience sought to be removed will still remain. I am therefore instructed to inform you that unless the old number of your premises is obliterated within seven days from the date of this notice, proceedings will be taken against you for the recovery of the penalty incurred. Yours faithfully, ______________________ _Town Surveyor_. Of course, if nothing is done after service of this second notice, it only remains to summon the offender as provided by the sections of the Act, which I have given in the early part of this chapter. [122] “Street” includes any highway (not being a turnpike road), and any public bridge (not being a county bridge), and any road, lane, footway, square, court, alley, or passage, whether a thoroughfare or not. (38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 4.) [123] The law apparently gives the Sanitary Authority power to fix names of streets against any premises they may choose, without first applying for or obtaining any consent from either the occupier or owner of such premises. (_Vide_ 10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, s. 64.) [124] If the premises have no existing number, these words can be left out. CHAPTER XV. BREAKING UP STREETS. In nearly every city and town of the United Kingdom, except those where the gas and water undertakings are the property of the urban authority, the town surveyor is constantly annoyed by having some portions of his streets broken up and greatly damaged by the action of the gas or water companies of the district. With regard to the lasting character of the damage caused to the street by this disturbance of its surface, I shall have something to say in this chapter, but it is first necessary to see what legal powers the companies have to break up the streets, and what powers the surveyor has to enforce the work being properly carried out. It will be found that the sections bearing upon this point are almost precisely similar in their wording in the following Acts: “The Gas Works Clauses Act 1847” (10 & 11 Vic. c. 15). “The Water Works Clauses Act 1847” (10 & 11 Vic. c. 17). “The Electric Lighting Act 1882” (45 & 46 Vic. c. 56). but with regard to the powers of the Government to lay telegraph and telephone wires, &c., the clauses are different, and are contained in, “The Telegraphs Act 1863” (26 & 27 Vic. c. 112).