The 1884 Thorndon by-election was a by-election held on 13 May 1884 for the Wellington urban electorate of Thorndon during the 8th Parliament.
Wellington businessman William Levin resigned due to ill-health.[1]
He was replaced by Dr Alfred Newman.[2]
One of the losing candidates, Henry Bunny had represented the Wairarapa electorate from 1865 to 1881. He was widely expected to win.[3]
Thomas Dwan did not impress one reporter at the opening meeting of the campaign, saying that he did not give his usual "political mountebank" speech but a deadly dull one, and that he showed he knew as much about the country districts as a "Hindoo does about skating".[4]
The following table gives the election results:
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Independent | Alfred Newman | 636 | 55.99 | ||
Independent | Henry Bunny | 379 | 33.36 | ||
Independent | Thomas Dwan | 121 | 10.65 | ||
Majority | 257 | 22.62 | |||
Turnout | 1136 |