Reminiscences of Rotherham
by G. Gummer, J.P.
« « prevBAD LEADERSHIP
I cannot recall any act of our local municipal body which aroused a more general chorus of condemnation than that which was perpetrated in the early eighties.Politics having been introduced into the Municipal elections, the Liberals obtained a majority, and when the various committees were elected they saw fit to select for the most part members of their own party. Not content with a majority on each committee, they were badly advised and monopolised all the important posts. Prominent and able men suffered exclusion from the important committees, and in many instances were only allowed to sit on one, and that of little importance.
How different was this treatment from that of the preceding year when AId. Neill and his friends had 'the whip hand' ! They allowed their opponents a fair representation on every committee, and on some a majority. They also allowed several of their opponents to retain their chairmanships.
In adopting a procedure which prevented a number of the members from performing their duties, the Liberal members undertook a great responsibility. No one, however, doubted their ability to manage satisfactorily the affairs of the town, as they had some good and able men amongst them. Aldermen Wigfield, Kelsey, Mason, Wragg and Newsum, and Councillors W. H. Gummer, Kenyon, Jenkins and Walker were all men accustomed to handling large business propositions. By this course of action they set up an opposition which prevented business from being got through.
The ill-feeling, created a few years previously by the action of certain magistrates at the Brewster Sessions, was again fanned into flame. One would have thought that amongst the members responsible, one at least would have been smart enough to know that procedure of this kind was bad tactics, which would redound on them sooner or later, just as a similar action by the Labour Party on the Board of Guardians will in time redound on them.
ROWDY COUNCIL MEETING
The result manifested itself in a discreditable exhibition when the parties were marshalled almost entirely on political lines.The tone of the Council proceedings had for some time been gradually deteriorating. The high standard set during the first few years of the town’s incorporation had not been main tamed and such unseemly proceedings as the town was becoming accustomed to were having a repellent effect upon some prominent local men who would, under other circumstances, have given service to the town.
The 'stormy petre' (Councillor Fell) was supposed to have made a great hit, when, at a public gathering, he suggested that the debates in the Council should occasionally be enlivened by a comic song.KISSES AT A SHILLING EACH
Even this year of turmoil had its humorous side, A few horses being required for the Highway Department, a sub-committee, with Mr. Campsall (the veterinary surgeon), visited a farmer in Misson for the purpose of buying two or more of these useful quadrupeds. At the conclusion of business an adjournment to the village hotel seemed necessary, and whilst they were there an attractive barmaid appealed to the amorous councillors. Kisses at one shilling each were disposed of by this willing Hebe, and only one member (an alderman) refrained from participating in this frivolity, though it was said that even he could claim no credit for self-denial as the lady herself barred him from her favours.Ready to use any weapon to punish the majority for keeping them off the committees, a few members made the bill of expenses of this sub-committee a pretext for personal and offensive comments, not altogether without good, as it elucidated the fact that the privileges enjoyed by the sub-committee were charged for in the bill.
As a result of the action of the Liberals, long speeches were delivered at the meetings for the purpose of obstructing business. Just imagine a speech of forty-five minutes’ duration being delivered on the question of next »
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