(1)Where the Board of Trade or the Commissioners, in the exercise of any power given by any general or special Act, on application order a company to which this part of this Act applies, to provide a bridge, subway, or approach, or any work of a similar character, the Board of Trade or the Commissioners, as the case may be, may require as a condition of making the order that an agreement to pay the whole or a portion of the expenses of complying with the order shall be entered into by the applicants or some of them, or such other persons as the Board of Trade or Commissioners think fit, and any of the following local authorities, namely, any sanitary authority, highway board, surveyor of highways acting with the consent of the vestry of his parish, or any other authority having power to levy rates, shall have power, if such authority think fit, to enter into any such agreement as is sanctioned by the Board of Trade or Commissioners for the purpose of the order.
(2)In such case any question respecting the persons by whom or the proportions in which the expenses of complying with the order are to be defrayed may, on the application of any party to the application, or on a certificate of the Board of Trade, be determined by the Commissioners.
(3)In this section the expression "parish" shall have the same meaning as the same expression has in the Acts relating to highways ; and the expression " the consent of the vestry of his parish " shall, in any place where there is no vestry meeting, mean the consent of a meeting of inhabitants contributing to the highway rates, provided that the same notice shall have been given of such a meeting as would be required by law for the assembling of a meeting in vestry.