The Hutt by-election of 1968 was a by-election for the electorate of Hutt on 3 August 1968 during the

35th New Zealand Parliament The 35th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the New Zealand Parliament. It was elected at the 1966 general election on 26 November of that year. 1966 general election The 1966 general election was held on Saturday, 26 November. A total of ...

. The by-election resulted from the death of the previous member and former prime minister Sir

Walter Nash Sir Walter Nash (12 February 1882 – 4 June 1968) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 27th prime minister of New Zealand in the Second Labour Government from 1957 to 1960. He is noted for his long period of political service, havin ...

on 4 June 1968. The contest was won by Trevor Young, also of the Labour Party. The

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

candidate was

John Kennedy-Good Sir John Kennedy-Good (8 August 1915 – 11 July 2005) was a New Zealand politician. He was mayor of Lower Hutt from 1970 to 1986. Biography Early life and career Kennedy-Good was born in 1915 in Goulburn, New South Wales, where his father was ...

, a future Mayor of

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. It is New Zealand's sixth most p ...

, who had stood for National in the previous general election.

Background

Sir

had represented the electorate since 1929 and was still MP at the age of 86 before dying after suffering a heart attack on 4 June 1968. Nash had already announced he intended to retire at the end of the parliamentary term and Trevor Young had already been selected as his successor in the seat to contest 1969 general election.

Candidates

;Labour The Labour Party chose Trevor Young as their candidate. Young, a longtime Labour member, had been a Lower Hutt City Councillor since 1947. As Nash was intending to retire at the upcoming general election in Labour had already selected Young as the candidate to replace him several months earlier. ;National

was selected as the candidate of the National Party. He had been a member of the Lower Hutt City Council since 1962 and had stood in Hutt for National at the previous election in . ;Social Credit The Social Credit Party selected

Tom Weal Thomas Kavanagh Weal (7 March 1929 – 29 October 2016) was a New Zealand politician for the Social Credit Party (New Zealand), Social Credit Political League, the New Democratic Party (New Zealand), New Democratic Party and the short lived Chri ...

, a teacher at

St Peter's College, Auckland St Peter's College ( mi, Te Kura Teitei o Hāto Petera) is a Catholic church, Catholic secondary school single-sex education, for boys in the Edmund Ignatius Rice, Edmund Rice tradition, and dedicated to St Peter. it is located in the Auckland CBD ...

, as their candidate. He contested the seat in . ;Others Nick Ursin, a local insurance officer, stood as an independent.

Campaign

There were allegations made of bias in television coverage of the election.

John Mathison John Mathison (29 September 1901 – 12 October 1982) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. He was famed for his skills as a chairman and well known for his "unmistakably Scottish" accent, eloquent speeches and dry sense of humour ...

, Labour MP for Avon, made a speech in parliament where he criticised the state-owned and operated New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) running a nationwide news programme featuring coverage of Prime Minister

Keith Holyoake Sir Keith Jacka Holyoake, (; 11 February 1904 – 8 December 1983) was the 26th prime minister of New Zealand, serving for a brief period in 1957 and then from 1960 to 1972, and also the 13th governor-general of New Zealand, serving from 1977 ...

and the National candidate John Kennedy-Good. However, the programme did not feature any footage of Leader of the Opposition

Norman Kirk Norman Eric Kirk (6 January 1923 – 31 August 1974) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 29th prime minister of New Zealand from 1972 until his sudden death in 1974. Born into poverty in Southern Canterbury, Kirk left school at ...

and Labour candidate Trevor Young who held a meeting on that same day. Holyoake rejected the criticism and stated that the NZBC were under time constraints, which led them to omit filming the Labour meeting. Social Credit leader

Vernon Cracknell Vernon Francis Cracknell (30 May 1912 – 4 June 1989) was a New Zealand politician. He served as the Social Credit Party's third leader (1963–1970). Early life Cracknell was born in Auckland on 30 May 1912. He was educated at Auckland Gramm ...

was critical of the failure of the media to cover the Social Credit campaign, stating he believed they should be allotted the same attention that the two main parties were.

Results

The following table gives the election results:

Aftermath

Young held the seat until its abolition in 1978. He then represented the seat of

Eastern Hutt Eastern Hutt is a former New Zealand parliamentary electorate from 1978 to 1996. It was represented by two Labour MPs. Population centres The 1977 electoral redistribution was the most overtly political since the Representation Commission had b ...

until 1990 when he retired.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hutt by-election, 1968 Hutt 1968 1968 elections in New Zealand Politics of the Wellington Region August 1968 events in New Zealand 1960s in Wellington