Of the 9 members of the previous council, 8 sought reëlection. Alderman E. C. Bartley, who was the previous Mayor and had served on the council for 40 years, did not seek reëlection. Aldermen Dickson, Barr, Conkey, and Brady were successful. Aldermen Nicholson, Rankin, Legge, and J. Mitchell were unsuccessful.[6]
Several of the candidates not elected were members of the ALP, however P. Frain was the only one to publicly announce his allegiance to the Lang Plan.[6]
All incumbent aldermen were re-elected with the exception of G. Handasyde who was replaced by W. Fraser. Fraser and E. Dawe were the only newcomer candidates.[7]
Three of the incumbent aldermen – Messrs. J. McKinney, H. Lugsdin, and J. A. Smith – chose not to seek reëlection. The candidates consisted of the remaining incumbent aldermen – Messrs. W. Hill, W. Murray Jr., J. Spence, E. Wilkinson, J. Speer, and J. Morgan – and ten others who were mostly newcomers but also included former alderman W. G. Miles.[8][9][10]
There were two lists on the ballot, a Labor list and an Independent list. As a result of the lists not each having enough candidates to fill their ranks on the ballot, two candidates agreed to appear on both lists. These were J. J. Spence and C. G. Keyes. It was noted by commentators at the time that the electors did not follow the lists when casting their votes, however it was also suggested that Mr. Keyes's success in being elected was in part due to his appearance on the two lists.[11]
Notably, a number of the new candidates contesting the election held qualifications in engineering, a useful asset to council and one that, according to many, made these candidates very desirable to the ratepayer and council. However, this also caused some controversy as allegations were made that one of these candidates would give preferential treatment to his employer if elected in the contracting of council services.[8][12]
The election was, at the time, the municipality's greatest ever turnout result. Of approximately 1,700 registered electors, 733 ballots were cast. Of those ballots, 13 were informal and 720 (equal to 6,480 votes) were formal.[11][13]
Mr. T. F. Cook, who also served as Town Clerk, was the returning officer for the election.[11]
The election resulted in 7 members of the Independent ticket and 4 members of the Labor ticket being elected, including both of the dual ticket candidates. Of these, 4 were incumbents who were returned to their posts.[11]
Ald. Wilkinson was returned to his position as Mayor following the election.[8]
Ronald Cuttle (who served as mayor during the previous term) C. J. O'Sullivan, F. A. Commins, R. A. Matheson, and J. D. Purcell were all re-elected. Three alderman – Harris, Keast, and Martin – did not run for re-election, and were replaced by W. J. Hiscock, A. S. Leahy, A. W. Slater, and P. J. Benham.[15]
The Labor Party endorsed five candidates, with only P. J. Benham successful.[16]
Incumbent aldermen Yeoman, Barker, Beard, Kent, Harden, Newth, and Maney were all re-elected, alongside newcomers Babbs and Thomas.[17] Aldermen R. H. Hankinson and E. Edwards did not seek re-election.[17]
Seven of the eight members of the preceding council who ran for reëlection were successful. These were Aldermen Gibson, Bland, Nixon, Ryan, Callaghan, and Nicholson.[18]
W. Giles, who was mayor during the previous council term but was unsuccessful in seeking reëlection, was president of the Temora branch of the United Country Party. Candidate L. G. Morton was president of the Temora ALP branch.[18]
Harry Godfrey, who served as Shire President on the previous council, was re-elected to his seat on the council in B Riding at the new council's first meeting on Thursday, the 17th of December. [20]
After the election Cr. Elphick was returned to his post as Deputy President unanimously on the motion of Councillors Herring and Baker.[21]
At that same meeting, Cr. Crain announced that he would move a motion at the next meeting, which was set to be on the 31st of January, "that the matter of equal representation for each riding on an adult franchise be submitted to the Minister for Local Government for his consideration".[21]
Wagga Wagga Borough Council was composed of a single ward electing 12 aldermen.[24][25] A Citizens' Committee, formed prior to the election to endorse candidates (including five incumbent aldermen), won all seats.[26]
Alderman Lazzari who was mayor on the previous council was the only candidate not elected. He faced a defamation allegation from Alderman Stewart who sought a writ of £4,000.[31]
1 2 3 "YANKO SHIRE". Daily Advertiser. Wagga Wagga, NSW. 7 December 1931. Retrieved 30 April 2025.
1 2 "YOUNG". Daily Advertiser. 7 December 1931. Retrieved 20 May 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
