The 1885 Bruce by-election was a by-election held on 5 August 1885 in the Bruce electorate during the 9th New Zealand Parliament.
The by-election was held after the resignation of Robert Gillies for health reasons. He had won the seat at the general 1884 election.
He was replaced by Donald Reid.
The runner-up James McDonald had represented Bruce up to the 1884 election. A former representative of the Bruce electorate, William Murray, was invited to contest the by-election but he declined.[1]
J. C. Anderson was born in Bruce and had farmed there for thirteen years.[2]
William Hutchison wrote that he had "many pleasant memories" of the electorate [3] but another correspondent said it was a "very palpable defeat" and denied that the Kaitangata miners were told how to vote. [4]
The following table gives the election result:
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Independent | Donald Reid | 336 | 31.61 | ||
Independent | James McDonald | 327 | 30.76 | ||
Independent | J. C. Anderson | 303 | 28.50 | ||
Independent | William Hutchison | 97 | 9.13 | ||
Majority | 9 | 0.85 | |||
Turnout | 1063 |