History
Sheffield Flood
«Return14th November, 1864
THE SHEFFIELD INUNDATION
The novel machinery that was created by Act of Parliament in the last Session for the relief of the sufferers by the Sheffield flood has now got fairly into working order. Soon after the calamity occurred it was found that the number and magnitude of the claims against the company would be so great that the ordinary legal means of redress were entirely out of the question, and the company therefore obtained the suspension of standing orders of both Houses, in order that they might introduce a special Act.
This measure constituted a commission for the ascertainment and assessment of damages, and Mr.William Overend, Q.C., was appointed chief commissioner, at a salary of £2,000 and Messrs. J. J. Smith of Sheffield, manufacturer, and Mr. F. Mills, of Duckmanton, Derby, were named as his colleagues, at salaries of £1,000 each; and a clerk of the court was appointed at £700.
The commissioners sit in Sheffield. They have the fullest powers for the discharge of their peculiar duties, and there is no appeal from their decisions.
As was anticipated, the number of claims sent in has been enormous. The 29th of October was the last day allowed by the Act, and on the evening of that day the claims numbered 7,200. They are sent in by landed proprietors whose estates were devastated, merchants and manufacturers whose works have been destroyed or damaged, small shopkeepers who lost their stock in trade, workmen who lost their working tools, vast numbers of householders who lost the whole or a great part of their clothes and furniture, and by persons whose relatives were drowned in the flood.
The exact number of those drowned was 238, but the claims for loss of life will be comparatively few in number, because of the fact that in most cases whole families were swept away. There are about 40 orphans and 12 widows, and these have received relief from the fund subscribed by the public, pending the settlement of their claims. We may mention that the aggregate amount of the claims is said to be more than £500,000, but a vast number of the claimants are accepting the sums offered by the water company, and others have found their own estimate of the damage materially reduced by the commissioners.
The estimate of the damage formed by the company was £327,000, but great numbers of claims have been sent in since that estimate was given. Dishonest persons have been found who thought that they had here a good opportunity of fleecing the company, and there have been 2 or 3 cases in which persons engaged in getting up claims, and who were paid by commission, have increased by large sums the amounts for which their clients desired to claim.
The exposures that followed upon these cases being brought into court will probably operate to prevent a repetition. We may state that today the Mayor of Sheffield will prefer claims against the company for the amounts advanced to sufferers by him in his capacity of chairman of the Relief Committee.
The public are interested in the decision as to whether the Mayor is to be reimbursed, because if it is in his favour the surplus of the relief fund will be increased to nearly £30,000, and the opinion of the subscribers will be taken as to the best means of disposing of it. The fund originally amounted to £52,000, and there is in hand about £20,000 continued »
