There is no doubt that the public streets vest in the urban authority, and it is contended that the following clause of the Public Health Act 1875 prevents any person from breaking up any street without their permission, although it is sometimes questioned whether the words “wilfully displaces” do not mean the doing of an illegal act, such as taking up a stone in a street to annoy or injure a neighbour or from sheer mischief, rather than that of a legal act for a proper purpose; the clause in question is as follows: “All streets being or which at any time become highways repairable by the inhabitants at large within any urban district, and the pavement stones and other materials thereof and all building implements and other things provided for the purposes thereof, shall vest in and be under the control of the urban authority. . . . Any person who without the consent of the urban authority wilfully displaces or takes up, or who injures the pavement, stones, materials, fences or posts of or the trees in any such street, shall be liable to a 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). Even, however, granting that application must be made before any individual can break up a street, the urban authority would not be likely to withhold their consent if it was for a legitimate purpose, and having disturbed the street, a person must light and guard the opening, and the “hole,” as it is called in the clauses following must be “filled up or otherwise made secure;” but it is very doubtful if he can be called upon to keep the surface of the road in repair for any length of time, as can be done in the case of water and gas companies, &c.; the following are the clauses in question: “When any building materials, rubbish or other things are laid or any hole made in any of the streets, whether the same be done by order of the commissioners or not, the person causing such materials or other things to be so laid or such hole to be made, shall at his own expense cause a sufficient light to be fixed in a proper place upon or near the same, and continue such light every night from sun-setting to sun-rising while such materials or hole remain. And such person shall at his own expense cause such materials or other things and such hole to be sufficiently fenced and enclosed until such materials or other things are removed or the hole filled up or otherwise made secure” . . . (10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, s. 81). “In no case shall any such building materials or other things or such hole be allowed to remain for any unnecessary time.” . . . (10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, s. 82).