1st Parliament Henry Sewell

henry sewell in 1856

on 9 august, colonists society held meeting @ white hart hotel. christchurch s first hotel on high street (then called sumner road) , cashel street corner, michael hart proprietor. 50 60 attendees addressed sewell, stuart-wortley, , wakefield. result, committees formed achieve return of these 3 candidates. @ point, sewell thought brittan not have chance of getting elected, unpopular, , refused go canvassing. on next few days, octavius mathias, vicar of st michael , angels, sewell s main antagonist.

the nominations town , country electorates held on tuesday, 16 august. hustings erected in front of land office (these days site of our city). 3 candidates christchurch country electorate spoke first, stuart-wortley , wakefield winning show of hand, , brittan visibly offended, demanding poll. sewell proposed john hall, , seconded postmaster , storekeeper charles wellington bishop. fooks proposed joshua charles porter (a lawyer; later mayor of kaiapoi), , seconded publican michael hart. whilst sewell s speech received, fooks laughed @ , interrupted (sewell said fooks did him more service [he] have done [him]self ). show of hands in favour of sewell; no more 5 hands raised in support of fooks.

the election held on saturday, 20 august, between 9 , 4 pm. method of voting @ time elector tell returning officer choice of candidate. happened in public, tally of votes kept, , fooks ahead, within hour, sewell passed him. final result 61 votes 34 sewell, declared elected.

sewell s legal , financial skill of considerable use in parliament, although criticised elitist , aloof. in terms of political spectrum of day, ranged centralists against provincialists , sewell adopted moderate position, although later became gradually more centralist. regard new zealand self-rule, other major issue of time, sewell in favour. when acting governor, robert wynyard, appointed sewell , several other politicians unofficial members of executive council, sewell believed self-government begin. when became apparent wynyard regarded appointments temporary, , did not believe parliament assume responsibility governance without royal assent, sewell , colleagues resigned.