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| Turnout | 128 | |||||||||||||||
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The Bruce by-election 1862 was a by-election held in the multi-member Bruce electorate during the 3rd New Zealand Parliament, on 31 July 1862. The by-election was caused by the death of incumbent MP Charles Kettle on 5 June, and was won by Edward Cargill.
The Bruce electorate was formed in the 1860 electoral redistribution. It covered the rural area surrounding Dunedin that had previously been part of the Dunedin Country electorate. The Bruce electorate was a two-member constituency. [1] Charles Kettle and Thomas Gillies were the initial representatives. [2] Kettle died on 5 June 1862, and this caused the by-election. [3] The Otago gold rush had started in May 1861 and the wider area experienced a significant increase in population, including the Bruce electorate. [4] [5] The lists of registered electors in several electorate, including Bruce, were revised during July 1862. [6] The Miners' Representation Act, 1860 allowed miners to also vote under certain conditions, and they were not registered in lists; there were approximate 3,000 of them eligible in the Bruce electorate. It is thus not possible to say how many electors were qualified to vote in the by-election. [4] Towards the end of June, it became known that William Baldwin, the gold fields commissioner at Waitahuna, would be a candidate in the by-election. [7] [8]
John Gillies, the father of Thomas Gillies, acted as the returning officer for the by-election, and he set the nomination meeting for Monday, 28 July at 12 noon. [9] At that meeting, F. C. Fulton (a brother of James Fulton [10] ) proposed and Otago Provincial Councillor Andrew Todd seconded Baldwin. The second candidate, Edward Cargill, was proposed by William Reynolds and seconded by Johnny Jones, a former business partner of Cargill. [11] The third person to be proposed was John Cargill, the brother of Edward Cargill, but this came as a surprise to the former who stated that he was not available for election. The two candidates then addressed the electors, and the obvious policy difference between them was that Baldwin was a proponent of separation of the South Island from the North Island, whilst Cargill supported one New Zealand. [11] Julius Vogel, himself a strong proponent of the separation question, then put some hard questions to Cargill. [11] [12] The meeting finished with a show of hands in favour of Cargill (42 to 8 hands), and Baldwin demanded a poll. [11]
Polling booths were in Dunedin at the court house, and at the school houses in East Taieri and Tokomairiro (since renamed to Milton), and Warepa (a locality near Balclutha). [9] The election was held on Thursday, 31 July, between 9am and 4 pm. [9] By Saturday, 2 August, the Dunedin newspapers had not received the results from the Warepa booth, but Cargill was leading by 20 votes. [13] [14] The Warepa results were received later that morning, and the returning officer declared the official results that day. There were just two votes at Warepa, with one for each candidate, hence the majority did not change and Cargill was declared elected. [15] [16]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent | Edward Cargill | 74 | 57.81 | ||
| Independent | William Baldwin | 54 | 42.19 | ||
| Turnout | 128 | ||||
| Majority | 20 | ||||
Cargill represented the Bruce electorate until 1865, when he resigned. [17] He was succeeded by James Macandrew in the July 1865 by-election. [18] Baldwin was elected in the 1863 supplementary election in the Gold Fields electorate. [19]
John Cargill was a New Zealand politician and runholder.
Charles Henry Kettle surveyed the city of Dunedin in New Zealand, imposing a bold design on a challenging landscape. He was aiming to create a Romantic effect and incidentally produced the world's steepest street, Baldwin Street.
Thomas Bannatyne Gillies was a 19th-century New Zealand lawyer, judge and politician.
Tuapeka is a former parliamentary electorate in the Otago region of New Zealand, from 1871 to 1911.
Bruce was a rural parliamentary electorate in the Otago region of New Zealand, from 1861 to 1922. For part of the 1860s with the influx to Otago of gold-miners it was a multi-member constituency with two members.
Taieri is a parliamentary electorate in the Otago region of New Zealand, initially from 1866 to 1911, and was later recreated during the 2019/20 electoral redistribution ahead of the 2020 election.
Dunedin Country was a parliamentary electorate in the rural area surrounding the city of Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand, from 1853 to 1860. It was a two-member electorate and was represented by a total of five members of parliament.
Edward Bowes Cargill was a 19th-century businessman and Member of Parliament in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. He was the Mayor of Dunedin from 1897 to 1898.
The Gold Fields District electorate was a 19th-century parliamentary electorate in the Otago region, New Zealand. It was created in 1862, with the first elections in the following year, and it returned two members. It was one of eventually three special interest constituencies created to meet the needs of gold miners. All three of these electorates were abolished in 1870. A unique feature of the Gold Fields District was that it was superimposed over other electorates, and voting was open to those who had held a mining license for some time. As such, suffrage was more relaxed than elsewhere in New Zealand, as voting was otherwise tied to property ownership. Another feature unique to the gold mining electorates was that no electoral rolls were prepared, but voting could be done upon showing a complying miner's license.
City of Dunedin, during the first two parliaments called Town of Dunedin, was a parliamentary electorate in Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand. It was one of the original electorates created in 1853 and existed, with two breaks, until 1905. The first break, from 1862 to 1866, was caused by an influx of people through the Otago gold rush, when many new electorates were formed in Otago. The second break occurred from 1881 to 1890. It was the only New Zealand electorate that was created as a single-member, two-member and three member electorate.
Dunedin and Suburbs South was a parliamentary electorate in the city of Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand from 1862 to 1866. From 1863 it was a multi-member electorate.
The 3rd New Zealand Parliament was a term of the Parliament of New Zealand. Elections for this term were held between 12 December 1860 and 28 March 1861 in 43 electorates to elect 53 MPs. Two electorates were added to this during this term, Gold Fields District and a new Dunedin electorate created by splitting the existing City of Dunedin into Dunedin and Suburbs North and Dunedin and Suburbs South, increasing the number of MPs to 57. During the term of this Parliament, six Ministries were in power.
William Baldwin, born John Baldwin was a 19th-century Member of Parliament in the Otago region of New Zealand.
John Hyde Harris was a 19th-century New Zealand politician. Born in England, he came to Dunedin as a young man and practised as a lawyer, and was then a judge. He entered provincial politics and was elected as the fourth Superintendent of the Otago Province. He then became Mayor of Dunedin and was called to the Legislative Council. He played one first-class cricket match during the 1865–66 season.
The Dunedin Country by-election 1858 was a by-election held in the multi-member Dunedin Country electorate during the 2nd New Zealand Parliament, on 16 June 1858. The by-election was caused by the resignation of incumbent MP John Cargill and was won by John Taylor.
The Dunedin Country by-election 1860 was a by-election held in the multi-member Dunedin Country electorate during the 2nd New Zealand Parliament. The by-election was caused by the resignation of incumbent MP William Cargill. The nomination meeting was held on 28 March and as Thomas Gillies was the only person proposed, he was declared elected unopposed.
William John Dyer was a New Zealand businessman and politician. Born in London, his family moved to Sydney when he was a child. He ran a trading business between Sydney, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, and moved to New Zealand in 1857. He lived at different times in Dunedin and Milton and entered politics, contesting a number of elections and representing the Tokomairaro electorate in the provincial council.
The April 1865 Bruce by-election was a New Zealand by-election held in the multi-member electorate of Bruce during the 3rd New Zealand Parliament on 8 April 1865. It was triggered on 9 January that year by the resignation of separationist Thomas Gillies and won by prominent settler Arthur John Burns. The more liberal businessman William John Dyer was the sole other contester of the by-election, finishing with 43.33% of the vote.
The July 1865 Bruce by-election was a New Zealand by-election held in the electorate of Bruce during the 3rd New Zealand Parliament on 27 July 1865 triggered by the resignation of Edward Cargill. Three candidates were nominated but one of them withdrew during the nomination meeting. James Macandrew was the successful candidate; he defeated John Cargill, a former Member of Parliament and a brother of the incumbent.
Henry Clapcott was a New Zealand businessman and politician.
