1901 Hastings Borough Council election

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1901 Hastings Borough Council election
Flag of New Zealand.svg
 190024 April / 15 May 19011902 
Turnout1,162 (71.20%)
Mayoral election
  William Young Dennett (cropped).png 3x4.svg
CandidateWilliam Dennett Cecil Fitzroy
Party Independent Independent
Popular vote674480
Percentage58.00%41.31%

Mayor before election

William Dennett
Independent

Elected mayor

William Dennett
Independent

Council election

9 seats on the Hastings Borough Council
5 seats needed for a majority
PartySeats+/–
Independents 9+3
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

The 1901 Hastings Borough Council election was a local election intended to be held on 24 April in the Borough of Hastings of New Zealand as part of that year's nation-wide local elections. Voters elected the mayor of Hastings a one year term and 9 borough councillors for a two year term. In person voting and the first-past-the-post voting system were used.

Contents

The date of election of the mayor was rescheduled as both candidates withdrew due to an informality found on the incumbent mayor's nomination form; a nominator of him did not meet the requirements. The council election was held on the initially scheduled date and the mayoral election was held on 15 May.

Dennett was re-elected to the mayoralty, defeating former mayor Cecil Fitzroy 58-to-41. Two councillors were re-elected, the other seven being newly elected.

Key dates

Background

Legislation

This was the first election in the borough held under the new Municipal Corporations Act 1900. [5]

Mayoral candidates

William Dennett, born in Hobart, Australia, was a Roman Catholic auctioneer and a mason. He had worked in the Victorian and Otago goldfields and in the colonial defense force. [6]

Cecil Fitzroy was born in Norfolk, England, and was educated at Eton and Cambridge. He immigrated to Australia in 1867 and became a sheep farmer before moving to Canterbury where he served as the member of Parliament for Selwyn. He become a sheep inspector and director of the Heretaunga Co-operative Dairy Company after moving to Hastings. He had been the mayor of the borough from 1894 until being defeated by Dennett in 1899. [7]

Campaign

Mayor

Dennett discovered that his nomination as candidate was invalid due to one his nominators being illegible to do so, [8] and thus he was forced to withdraw from the race. Fitzroy, not wanting to simply walk into office, also withdrew his candidacy. Thus new rounds of nominations were required. [9] Their notifications of retirement were published in the Hastings Standard on 22 April. [10]

In the period between the council election and the mayoral election, 243 people registered on the burgess list to be able to vote, bringing the number of registered electors to 1,633. [11]

Voting for the mayoral election took place at the Borough Council Chambers and at the Princess Theatre. [12]

The Hastings Standard said the "vagrant cow question" was an important issue in the election, with the paper seeing the incumbent mayor Dennett as too liberal or weak willed in stopping people from letting their cows graze on the public roads and land of the borough. [13] In the same column, the paper praised the mayor for his "unostentatious" and "untiring" work as mayor. The paper, on the other hand, said that Fitzroy "[suffered] considerably in comparison" to Dennett. They criticised his previous stint as mayor.

The two candidates addressed an audience at the Princess Theatre on 14 May. Dennett said that he had been elected at the previous election on the "retrenchment ticket" and that in his period as mayor he had been successful in laying 23 miles of drains and 40 miles of roads. He dismissed claims he had let cattle graze freely, and pointed to a reduction in borough debt from £2,203 to £1,864 during his tenure. Fitzroy went through a history of the borough, specifically how debts were occurred during the tenures of the mayors; based on this he implied that the debt rise of £337 during his tenure was low. [14]

List of candidates

Mayor

Candidate [12] PhotoNotes
William Dennett William Young Dennett (cropped).png Incumbent mayor of Hastings (first elected 1899)
Cecil Fitzroy Former mayor of Hastings (1894–1899)

Council

Candidate [2] Notes
William Arthur Beecroft
Charles George Cunnold
George EbbettFuture mayor of Hastings.
Alfred Amory George
William John Graham
Matthew Johnson
William Baxter Jones
William Charles Maddison
Edward Newbigin
George RoachFuture mayor of Hastings.
David Scannell
William Henry Smith
Thomas ThompsonFuture mayor of Hastings.

Results

Council

Thompson and Beecroft were the only incumbent elected, the seven others were newly elected. [15]

The results of the borough council election as held on 24 April were: [3]

CandidateVotes%
William Charles Maddison58770.38
George Roach48958.63
Thomas Thompson48458.03
William Henry Smith46856.12
George Ebbett45955.04
William Arthur Beecroft43151.68
William Baxter Jones42050.36
Edward Newbigin37645.08
David Scannell36343.53
Alfred Amory George35542.57
Charles George Cunnold27633.09
Matthew Johnson26631.89
William John Graham13816.55
Informal141.68
Turnout834

Mayor

Dennett defeated Fitzroy, being re-elected to a second term of office as mayor. [16]

CandidateVotes%
William Dennett67458.00
Cecil Fitzroy 48041.31
Informal80.69
Turnout1,162

Aftermath and analysis

The Hawke's Bay Herald reported on 27 April that the election had the highest turnout yet for the borough, and expected the mayoral election to be even more so. [4] This would come to fruition, with 1,162 people voting in the election. [16]

The result of the mayoral election was received with cheers. Dennett gave a speech thanking everyone for returning him to office. Fitzroy also tried to speak to the crowd, but was met with a "considerable" display of hostility. Eventually he was allowed to speak, and conceded to Dennett and the will of the voters. [16] The mayor was sworn in on 18 May. [5]

References

  1. J, Collinge (9 April 1901). "Borough of Hastings — Election of Councillors". Hastings Standard . No. 1491. p. 3.
  2. 1 2 Collinge, J (18 April 1901). "Borough of Hastings — Annual Election of Mayor". Hastings Standard . Vol. 5, no. 1499. p. 3.
  3. 1 2 "Borough of Hastings — Election of Nine Councillors". Hastings Standard . Vol. 5, no. 1506. 26 April 1901. p. 3.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Hastings". Hawke's Bay Herald . Vol. 36, no. 11830. 27 April 1901. p. 4.
  5. 1 2 "Hastings Borough Council". Hastings Standard . Vol. 5, no. 1525. 18 May 1901. p. 4.
  6. Boyd, Mary Beatrice (1984). City of the Plains – A History of Hastings. Victoria University Press. p. 167. ISBN   9780864730220.
  7. Boyd, Mary Beatrice (1984). City of the Plains – A History of Hastings. Victoria University Press. p. 70. ISBN   9780864730220.
  8. "Untititled". Hawke's Bay Herald . Vol. 36, no. 11825. 22 April 1901. p. 2.
  9. "The Gossip's Diary". Hastings Standard . Vol. 5, no. 1502. 22 April 1901. p. 3.
  10. Collinge, J (22 April 1901). "Borough of Hastings — Retirement of Candidate". Hastings Standard . Vol. 5, no. 1502. p. 3.
  11. "Hastings". Hawke's Bay Herald . Vol. 36, no. 11834. 2 May 1901. p. 4.
  12. 1 2 "Borough of Hastings — Election of Mayor to Fill Extraordinary Vacancy". Hastings Standard . Vol. 5, no. 1515. 7 May 1901. p. 3.
  13. "The Gossip's Diary". Hastings Standard . Vol. 5, no. 1521. 14 May 1901. p. 2.
  14. "Hastings". Hawke's Bay Herald . Vol. 36, no. 11845. 15 May 1901. p. 4.
  15. "Hastings". Hawke's Bay Herald . Vol. 36, no. 11828. 25 April 1901. p. 3.
  16. 1 2 3 "Mayoral Election". Hastings Standard . Vol. 5, no. 1523. 16 May 1901. p. 2.