Talk:1859 Town of Dunedin by-election

A fact from 1859 Town of Dunedin by-election appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 31 January 2017 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the 1859 by-election in Dunedin, New Zealand, was won by James Macandrew, who had precipitated it with his resignation from office?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2017/January. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Town of Dunedin by-election, 1859.

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Some suggestions

Newspapers were notoriously parochial in those days. I'd try and find reporting from another newspaper, but make sure that they had their own reporter. Copyright didn't exist, and lots of articles got reported by other newspapers like they were their own. You'll know when you've got a different reporter, because they were likely to report different details, or give proceedings a different spin.
Write something about the election itself (14 January).
You may find something about a meeting where the returning officer announced the formal results (but that may have happened on election day after the poll closed).
You could state what happened afterwards (I see in the New Zealand Parliamentary Record that Macandrew served until the end of the term in 1860, but it wasn't until 1865 that he got elected next (I haven't looked up what happened in between).

Hope this helps. Schwede 66 23:30, 13 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the feedback Schwede66! Before I had expanded the article and nominated it for DYK I had a look on Papers Past and the Otago Witness was the only newspaper listed there in the Otago Region at the time. J 947 23:36, 13 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Good to hear that you had a look. I find it hard to believe that there weren't any other newspapers around in Dunedin in 1859. Maybe one day the National Library will get round to scanning in other newspapers, and we can enjoy more than this single source. Schwede 66 00:16, 14 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Also, the Otago Daily Times sprung up in 1861 and the Evening Star (Dunedin) got in to service in 1863! That was probably because of the gold rush. J 947 00:39, 14 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

However, archives on Papers Past only list the Evening Star from 1865. Also, the Bruce Herald (1864, Papers Past archives from 1865). Heaps sprung up with the gold rush in the 1860s. J 947 00:45, 14 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]