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TMI Blog1921 (7) TMI 1X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tiffs, the Corporation of Calcutta, from this decree. 5. The appellants supply Calcutta with water, and for this purpose own two holdings of land, one situate at 71 Barrack-pore Road, Tallah, on which there is now and has for some time past been a reservoir and a pumping station. This piece of land has been assessed as a separate holding for the purposes of the Bengal Municipal Act, 1884 (Bengal Act III. of 1884), and the other, an adjoining holding, No. 1 Khelat Babu's Lane, situate from 380 to 400 feet distant from the pumping station. It is with regard to the assessment of this latter piece of land (hereinafter referred to as No. 2 holding) that this litigation has arisen. Both pieces of land are within the municipal boundary of the defendant's municipality (the respondent). 6. The principal waterworks of the appellants are situate at a place named Pulta, about. 15 miles from Calcutta, and its principal pumping and distributing station is at. Tallah; the pump and engine house are situate on the piece of land, called in this case holding or lot No. 1, at 71 Barrack-pore Road. On this piece of land a very large underground reservoir has been constructed, from which the w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the whole volume of water in the mains flowed towards the town. When the demand in the town had decreased to less than the pumps could supply, a cock on another pipe connected with the tank was by hand opened and the unneeded surplus water was pumped back into the tank, replenishing it so as to raise the level of the water in it to what it was before the discharge of the morning took place. Before the erection of this tank the holding No. 2 of the appellants was by the Commissioners of the municipality in exercise of their powers under the aforesaid Act of 1884, assessed at the annual value of ₹ 1053. 9. After the erection of the tank with its supporting structure, which cost the appellants about 20 lakhs of rupees, they assessed this holding at the annual value of ₹ 1,27.030 on the basis of the cost of construction and demanded rates to the amount of ₹ 1462.5.3. On an objection being made by the appellants this assessment was, in the month of August, 1014, revised and reduced to ₹ 30,000, that being the yearly rent at which, according to the respondent assessors, it might reasonably be expected to be let as it stood to a hypothetical tenant. On a further r ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... event "the escape or movement of the water. When this water is allowed to escape from it through a hole or holes in its side into pipes, the same force of gravity acts upon the water and pushes or draws it down the pipes, but this force of gravity acting on the unimprisoned water is neither generated, modified, directed nor applied by the tank. The latter does not move anything automatically. If it be a machine and its parts be machinery, then it is difficult to see why every reservoir which holds the water that is poured into it and lets that water escape from it through an opening on its side or bottom when that opening is not blocked up, is not equally a machine. 13. With a view of showing that the tank was a machine or machinery, it was urged on behalf of the appellants that the flow into the pipes of the water allowed to escape from it regulated the course of the water in the pipes and kept up a uniform pressure. But the nature and character of the functions which a reservoir performs cannot depend upon the work done by the waiter drawn off from it, or the use to which that water is put. These functions remain the same, whether the escaped water be allowed to flow over l ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ains. Into the tank water is pumped, stored there and allowed when occasion requires to flow out of it through an aperture in its side or bottom into the same mains. Their respective functions so closely resemble each other as to be in essence identical, yet it was not contended, nor even suggested, that the underground reservoir was "machinery." 16. The functions discharged by the tank closely resemble those discharged by the cisterns built on the roofs of those country houses which are situated far away from any system of waterworks. The rain water which falls upon the roof of the house is conducted by rain shoots or pipes into the cisterns, is stored there till needed, and is through an aperture or apertures in its sides or bottom, drawn by the force of gravity through pipes into the interior of the dwelling house to satisfy domestic needs of different kinds. If the cistern rested on a tower built purposely to support it, the case would not be altered. Yet, in their Lordships' view, no intelligent person would, in the ordinary use of language, describe this cistern, whether supported on the roof of the dwelling house or on such a tower, together with the rain shoo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ith the potentiality of operating or doing work. It is clear to my mind that a switchback railway comes within that definition." He then gives his reason for so thinking in the following words: "because it is a thing skilfully built with curves of a particular shape, which by their peculiar form supply the motive power which actuates the carriages which run up and down the railway." With all respect for Lord Davey, the words "supply the motive power" do not appear to their Lordships to be very happily chosen. 20. It is an error to say that the shape of the curves "supplies motive power." It may give and does give to the ever present force of gravity the opportunity of exerting itself more effectually. That is all. 21. The respective effects of the forces of gravity and friction on solid bodies resting on a sloping hillside were much discussed in the case of the Rhondda Valley landslip: Attorney-General v. Gory Bros. & Co. [1921] A.C. 521 It may well be, however, that in the case of a switchback railway there is great art and ingenuity in constructing its curves in such a way that the momentum gathered by a car in descending one curve is sufficie ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 300 feet from it on a holding different from, though adjoining that on which it stands, that these pumps were constructed and worked in all essentials as they are now worked long before its erection was thought of, and that it is only the unneeded surplus of the water raised by these pumps in their ordinary operation from the underground reservoir that is diverted into it. They are, therefore, of opinion that neither this tank nor its supporting structure, nor both combined, are "machinery," within the meaning of Section 101 of the above-mentioned statute of 1884; and that the respondent was justified in taking the value of these works into consideration as he has done in making the assessment of the appellants, No. 2, holding. Some reliance was placed by the appellants upon the case of Auckland Corporation v. Auckland Gas Co. [1918] N.Z.L.R. 1028 But that case is fundamentally distinguishable from the present one. What was then decided was that "the main pipes, gasometers and governors" of a gas company were, when taken all together, "machinery." 25. In their Lordships' opinion this appeal should be dismissed, and they will humbly advise His Maj ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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