The 1914 Wellington City mayoral by-election was part of the New Zealand local elections held that same year. The polling was conducted using the standard

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

electoral method.

Background

John Luke had been Mayor of Wellington since his election in

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos (1913), Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not ven ...

. Luke sought re-election against former Mayor

David McLaren David McLaren may refer to: * David McLaren (colonial manager) (1785–1850), colonial manager (CEO) of the colony of South Australia (1837–1841) * David McLaren (politician) (1872–1939), mayor of Wellington and member of the New Zealand Parlia ...

who was defeated by Luke a year earlier and stood for the mayoralty once again. The third contestant was John Glover, a newspaper editor, who entered the contest for the newly formed

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SDP), a more radical labour party.

Harry Holland Henry Edmund Holland (10 June 1868 – 8 October 1933) was an Australian-born newspaper owner, politician and unionist who relocated to New Zealand. He was the second leader of the New Zealand Labour Party. Early life Holland was born at G ...

was originally selected as the SDP candidate, but was unable to contest the mayoralty as he was engaged in a sedition case so Glover stood in his place. The divisions were deepened by McLaren's statement that SDP ringleader

Bob Semple Robert Semple (21 October 1873 – 31 January 1955) was a union leader and later Minister of Public Works for the first Labour Government of New Zealand. He is also known for creating the Bob Semple tank. Early life He was born in Sofala, New ...

(later a councillor) was "as free from political principles as a frog from feathers". Glover's entry cut into McLaren's support base causing his polling to fall sharply from the previous two elections. Regardless of the divided labour vote, Luke won the contest with an outright majority. The election came at the same time as the

1913 Great Strike The Great Strike refers to a near general strike that took place in New Zealand from October 1913 to mid-January 1914. It was the largest and most disruptive strike in New Zealand's history. At its height, it brought the economy of New Zealand al ...

, which began on the Wellington waterfront intensifying anti-Labour sentiment which assisted Luke in increasing his majority.

Results

The following table gives the election results:

Notes

References

* * Mayoral elections in Wellington 1914 elections in New Zealand Politics of the Wellington Region 1910s in Wellington {{NewZealand-election-stub