The City of Auckland by-election of 1893 was a
by-election held on 4 August 1893 during the
11th New Zealand Parliament
The 11th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the Parliament of New Zealand.
Elections for this term were held in 4 Māori electorates and 62 European electorates on 27 November and 5 December 1890, respectively. A total of 74 MPs were elected ...
in the urban upper North Island electorate of the .
Background
In 1893,
William Lee Rees accused
Alfred Cadman
Sir Alfred Jerome Cadman (17 June 1847 – 23 March 1905) was a New Zealand politician of the Liberal Party. He was the Minister of Railways from 1895 to 1899 in the Liberal Government.
Early life
Cadman was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1847. ...
, the
Member
Member may refer to:
* Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon
* Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set
* In object-oriented programming, a member of a class
** Field (computer science), entries in ...
for
Thames, of using his position as
Minister for Native Affairs for his own personal benefit. Cadman then sued Rees for libel but the trial proved inconclusive. The jury in the libel case found that "the letters of Mr Rees to the Premier were defamatory, and that the defamatory matter was not only not fair and ''bona fide'' comment on the acts and conduct of the plaintiff, but that it was not true", however they only awarded damages of £1 which "implied
adman'sacts and conduct were yet not above suspicion."
On 11 July 1893 while in the debating chamber of New Zealand's parliament Cadman challenged Rees to vacate his seat and contest the subsequent by-election against him. Rees accepted the challenge although Cadman was ultimately successful.
Results
The following table gives the election results:
A by-election was later
held in Thames for Cadman's newly vacant seat.
References
Auckland 1893
1893 elections in New Zealand
Politics of the Auckland Region
1890s in Auckland
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