Reminiscences of Rotherham
by G. Gummer, J.P.
« « prevtotal amount appropriated for relief of rates from 1871 to 1925 is £174403.
This progress was made in face of the strenuous competition of the Electricity Works, which commenced to operate in 1901.
SHEFFIELD v. ROTHERHAM
A one period we were in constant conflict with Sheffield, who seemed to be always in Parliament seeking fresh powers, which contained clauses jeopardising our rights, compelling us to oppose their Bills in Parliament. In 1912, Sheffield promoted a Bill to extend their borough boundaries, and one of its clauses sought to take into their city the Blackburn Meadows and their sewage works, which were in the Rotherham borough, and on which we received rates amounting to several thousand pounds per annum. After a long hearing in the Commons, the Committee passed this clause and fixed the compensation payable to Rotherham at £15,000. Greatly upset by this decision, we decided to offer further opposition when the Bill reached the Upper House. At the interview at which this decision was arrived at, Mr. Ram, K.C., our leading counsel, desiring to console us in our disappointment, made the remark 'Thank God there’s a House of Lords.'A few weeks later in the Assembly Rooms, where we were entertaining the Mayor to dinner, I was entrusted with the toast of 'Our Neighbours' . Referring to our defeat in the Commons, I made it known we intended carrying our opposition to a higher authority, and used Mr. Ram's expression: 'Thank God there’s a House of Lords.' Sir W Clegg, one of our guests, in responding to the toast, twitted me about this remark, expressed his astonishment that his friend Gummer, all advanced Radical and a local leader of a party who were constantly seeking to abolish the Lords, should now be offering thanks that it existed. When the Bill reached the House of Lords, Mr. Honoratus Lloyd, the leading counsel for Sheffield. was content to open his case shortly (reserving no doubt his big speech for reply),and called his witnesses, the chief of whom was Mr. Arthur Neal.
Mr. Ram, an old tactician at the Parliamentary bar, having decided to call no witnesses, proceeded in his cross-examination to extract from the principal witness all the evidence he required, after which he addressed the Committee on our behalf. These tactics gave Mr. Honoratus Lloyd no right to reply, and on the conclusion of our counsel’s speech the Committee, after conferring for a few minutes, threw out the Bill. As Mr. W. J. Board, our Town Clerk, was unable to be present at our triumph, having just taken over the Town Clerkship of the city of Nottingham, I raced to the nearest telegraph office in the House and wired the following message: - Good old Ram and you too, Board, on top again' - - Gummer. I also sent the following message to Sir William Clegg:' Thank God there’s a House of Lords,'--Gummer.
DINNERS, ETC
I found when Mayor in 1899-1901, one of the troubles which at first I treated lightly was the number of invitations I received to dine with the various organisations and clubs in the town. Of course, there were dinners and dinners, some digestible and others the reverse. On the chairman depended a great deal of the enjoyment. The best chairman I remember was Mr. E. W. Hodgkinson, who, overflowing with good humour and breezy good nature, always made any function be presided over a huge success. The oratory was usually amateurish, yet we all indulged in it, and enjoyed one another’s efforts. After all, if there was no mutual admiration abroad, it would indeed be a drab world to live in. The toast lists were usually long ones, incluiding The Queen,The Prince and Princess of Wales and the rest of the Royal Family,The Army, Navy and Reserve Forces.It is many years since a young subaltern of the Militia, on being asked to reply for the Services, found it altogether too much for him, but still he made the hit of the evening when he rose and said, 'The Militia are as smart as H - ' . next »