1891 Canterbury colonial election re-count

In September 1891 the Elections and Qualifications Committee conducted a re-count of the 1891 Canterbury election. There were 4 seats available. Joseph Carruthers (Free Trade) had been comfortably re-elected at the head of the poll with 7,231 votes, 19.8%. The following 4 candidates were separated by 105 votes, with John Wheeler (Free Trade) defeating James Eve (Ind. Free Trade) for the final seat with a margin of 5 votes. The next best candidate, John Grant (Labour) was a further 487 behind, with 3,857 votes, 10.6%.[1]

The committee declared that John Wheeler (Free Trade) had not been elected the member for Canterbury, however no by-election was conducted. Instead the committee declared that James Eve (Ind. Free Trade) based on its own count of the result.[1][2]

Dates

Date Event
17 June  1891 1891 Canterbury election
24 June 1891 Petition lodged by James Eve.[3]
14 July 1891 John Wheeler sworn in as member for Canterbury
16 July 1891 Elections and Qualifications Committee appointed.[2]
29 July 1864 Petition referred to the Elections and Qualifications Committee.[2]
2 September 1891 Elections and Qualifications Committee declared that James Eve had been elected.[2]

Result

1891 Canterbury election re-count]]
Wednesday 2 September [1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Free Trade Joseph Carruthers (re-elected 1) N/A
Labour Thomas Bavister (elected 2) 4,453 12.19 +0.01
Labour Cornelius Danahey (elected 3) 4,363 11.99 +0.03
Ind. Free Trade James Eve (elected 4) 4,349 11.92 +0.02
Free Trade John Wheeler (defeated) 4,344 11.90 −0.02
Total formal votes 36,491 99.30 −0.02
Informal votes 258[a] 0.70 +0.02
Turnout 10,279 54.96 '"`UNIQ−−ref−0000000E−QINU`"' 
  Ind. Free Trade gain 1 from Free Trade

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Calculated on the assumption that the total number of votes did not change.
  2. ^ Change is compared to the previously declared count for the election.

References

  1. ^ a b c Green, Antony. "1891 Canterbury". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d Francis Suttor (2 September 1891). "Elections and Qualifications Committee" (pdf). Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). New South Wales: Legislative Assembly. p. 1393. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  3. ^ "Canterbury petition". New South Wales Government Gazette. No. 414. 1 July 1891. p. 4977. Retrieved 19 September 2020 – via Trove.