Thames by-election, 1909

Thames by-election, 1909

4 February 1909 (1909-02-04)
Candidate Edmund Taylor William Henry Lucas Party Liberal Liberal
Member before election James McGowan Liberal Elected Member Edmund Taylor Liberal

The Thames by-election of 1909 was a by-election held during the 17th New Zealand Parliament.

Background

The by-election was caused after the resignation of Liberal Party MP James McGowan, who had been appointed to the Legislative Council. McGowan announced his resignation by advertisement in the Thames Star on 7 January 1909, and in the same edition, the Mayor of Thames, Archibald Burns, announced his candidacy.^[1]

In the end, five candidates contested the election, but Burns was not among them. William Henry Lucas, a unionist, was the official representative of the liberal government.^[2][3] Edmund Taylor and Thomas William Rhodes were also Liberal Party member.^[2] Frederick Henry Haselden was the official candidate of the conservative opposition, but Ernest Deeble also stood for opposition interests.^[2][4][5]

Results

The following table gives the election results:

The Second Ballot Act 1908 was in force and had previously been used for the 1908 election. This was the first by-election where it applied, and the act stipulated that the leading candidate had to obtain an absolute majority of the votes, or else the two highest polling candidates would face each other in a second election. At the 28 January election, Taylor was the highest-polling candidate, but received only 34% of the vote, hence a second election between him and Lucas was required.^[2] That election was held on 4 February 1909, and was won by Taylor.^[6]

A week after the election, William Massey announced that the opposition will from now on be known as the Reform Party.^[8] Taylor served until the end of the parliamentary term and was narrowly beaten by Rhodes at the next general election in 1911.^[9] Taylor contested the electorate again in 1914 but Rhodes remained successful.^[10]

References

« (1853–1890) «   By-elections in New Zealand in the Liberal Party era (1891–1911)   » (1912–1938) »
11th Parliament	Northern Maori, 1891 Egmont, 1891 Newton, 1891 Te Aroha, 1891 Waikato, 1891 City of Christchurch, 1891 City of Wellington, 1892 Bruce, 1892 Rangitikei, 1892 Inangahua, 1893 Wanganui, 1893 Thames, 1893 City of Auckland, 1893
12th Parliament	Waitemata, 1894 Tuapeka, 1894 City of Auckland, 1895 City of Christchurch, 1896
13th Parliament	Wellington Suburbs, 1897 Awarua, 1897 City of Dunedin, 1897 City of Wellington, 1898 Mataura, 1898 Tuapeka, 1898 City of Wellington, 1899
14th Parliament	Otaki, 1900 City of Auckland, 1900 Waihemo, 1900 Northern Maori, 1901 City of Christchurch, 1901 Patea, Jul 1901 Patea, Nov 1901 Caversham, 1901
15th Parliament	Pahiatua, 1904 City of Wellington, 1905
16th Parliament	Westland, 1906 Manukau, 1906 Taranaki, 1907 Tuapeka, 1908
17th Parliament	Thames, 1909 Northern Maori, 1909 Rangitikei, 1909 Auckland East, 1910 Christchurch North, 1911