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The 1870 Westland North by-election was a by-election held on 2 July 1870 during the 4th New Zealand Parliament in the West Coast electorate of Westland North. Timothy Gallagher had resigned and Thomas Kynnersley was returned unopposed.
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The 1870 Westland North by-election was a by-election held on 2 July 1870 during the 4th New Zealand Parliament in the West Coast electorate of Westland North. Timothy Gallagher had resigned and Thomas Kynnersley was returned unopposed.
The by-election was caused by the resignation of the incumbent MP Timothy Gallagher on 13 May 1870 [1] over urgent and private business affairs. [2] [3]
The three provincial councillors from the area were immediately mooted as potential candidates plus a newly-appointed member of the provincial executive. The councillors were Eugene O'Conor of Westport (representing the Buller electorate), George Donne of Charleston (representing the Charleston electorate), and William Franklyn of the Grey (representing the Grey electorate). [4] [5] The executive member was Thomas Kynnersley, who had previously been goldfields warden on the West Coast and had just been appointed as warden to the Wangapeka. [6] [7] In the Provincial Council, there was conflict between Donne and O'Conor over the latter having received a requisition from the Charleston, the home town of Donne. [8] Another potential candidate, Lowther Broad from Charleston, was mentioned by The Charleston Herald. [9]
Franklyn had only just, on 5 May, been elected to the provincial council. When, just days later, Kynnersley returned to New Zealand, Franklyn resigned to make room for Kynnersley's appointment to the provincial executive. When it was found that the resignation was not necessary, Franklyn withdrew it. Over unrelated conduct issues, other members forced the resignation to be accepted. [10] [11] Franklyn received negative publicity over the affair [12] [13] [14] and received a hostile reception at the provincial by-election nomination meeting. [15] Three days prior to the provincial by-election, Franklyn withdrew, stating that he was "heartily sick of politics". [16] Consequently, nothing further was heard from or about him in relation to the parliamentary by-election.
On 4 June, the Grey River Argus reported that Kynnersley had resolved to stand in Westland North. [17] On 7 June, he advertised his candidacy in The Westport Times. [18] Donne and O'Conor were still discussed as potential candidates at that point. [19] On 18 June, it was reported that O'Conor had received a strong requisition but he did not come forward as a candidate. [20]
The government at the time, led by William Fox, was opposed to the abolition of the provincial government system. There were strong calls from gold fields areas for abolition as it was felt that insufficient money was spent in the areas where much of the taxation was collected. It could therefore be expected that the person to be returned in Westland North would not be a government supporter. In this context, the editor of The Westport Times speculated that the government was deliberately delaying the issuing of a writ for the by-election so that by the time a new candidate had been chosen, the current session of the government would be over and the next general election would be called. [21]
The writ, dated 9 June, was advertised with a date of 22 June by the returning officer. The advertisement appeared in The Westport Times on 28 June. [lower-alpha 1] The nomination meeting was set for Saturday, 2 July, and the polling day for 9 July. Ten polling places were stipulated as such: [24]
Kynnersley, who had been in Nelson as the provincial council was in session, arrived in Greymouth on 20 June to start a speaking tour of the electorate. On 21 June, he spoke in Cobden at a poorly-attended meeting. [25] [26] On 27 June, Kynnersley left Greymouth on the Murray for Westport, where he arrived the following day after having encountered terrible weather and sea. [27] On 29 June, he spoke to some 200 electors in Charleston. [28] On 1 July, he spoke in Westport at a well-attended meeting. [29] [30]
The nomination meeting for the by-election was held at 12 noon on 2 July 1870 at the Westport Courthouse. Dr Joseph Giles (1832–1930) was the returning officer. As Kynnersley was the only person proposed for election, the Dr Giles declared him elected unopposed. [31] [32]
Kynnersley made his way to Wellington and took his seat at parliament on 12 July. [33] The session was prorogued on 13 September 1870, which ended the 4th New Zealand Parliament. [34] Prior to the 1871 general election, Kynnersley announced that he would not make himself available for re-election. [35]
William Sefton Moorhouse was a British-born New Zealand politician. He was the second Superintendent of Canterbury Province.
Buller is a former New Zealand parliamentary electorate, from 1871 to 1972. It was represented by eleven Members of Parliament.
Grey Valley is a former parliamentary electorate in the West Coast region of New Zealand. The electorate was created for the 1871 general election as a single-member electorate, became a two-member electorate for the 1876 general election, and was split between the single-member electorates of Greymouth and Inangahua for the 1881 general election.
Eugene Joseph O'Conor was a New Zealand Member of Parliament for the Buller electorate, in the South Island.
Westland North was a parliamentary electorate on the West Coast of New Zealand from 1868 to 1870.
The 4th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the Parliament of New Zealand.
Joseph Petrie was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from Westland, New Zealand.
William Henry Harrison was a 19th-century journalist from Greymouth who represented two Westland electorates in the New Zealand House of Representatives.
John Munro was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from the West Coast, New Zealand.
Edmund Barff was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from the West Coast, New Zealand.
Thomas Alfred Sneyd Kynnersley, who signed as T. A. Sneyd Kynnersley, was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from the West Coast, New Zealand.
Timothy Gallagher was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from the West Coast, New Zealand.
John Bevan was a 19th-century member of the House of Representatives. He was an auctioneer and merchant from Hokitika on the West Coast of New Zealand.
Gerard George Fitzgerald was a 19th-century Member of Parliament in New Zealand. Like his brother James FitzGerald, he was a journalist of considerable ability, and co-founded The Southland Times in 1862. For the last 19 years of his life, he was editor of The Timaru Herald.
James Kerr was an editor and politician. He was a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council from 1892 until his death.
Henry Hermann Lahmann, also known as Henry Herman Lahman and often referred to as H. H. Lahman, was a German immigrant who became a politician on the West Coast of New Zealand. He was active in provincial politics and was later appointed to the Legislative Council (1872–1890).
The Mayor of Grey, often referred to as the Mayor of Greymouth, officiates over the Grey District of New Zealand which is administered by the Grey District Council with its seat in Greymouth. The current Mayor is Tania Gibson. Two predecessors to this office were the Mayor of Greymouth, officiating over the Greymouth Borough Council from 1868, and from 1877 the chairman of the Grey County Council.
The Greymouth Borough was the borough council covering the urban part of Greymouth, New Zealand between 1868 and 1989, when it became part of Grey District.
Walter Scott Reid was New Zealand's first non-political Solicitor-General and the first elected president of the New Zealand Law Society.
The Ross Borough was the borough council covering the town of Ross, New Zealand and the nearby locality Donoghues, between 1878 and 1972, when Ross Borough was merged back into Westland County.
