The bullocks that voted

Vote rigging is nothing new, but we have come a long way since 1852 when the British Parliament passed an Act to Grant a Representative Constitution to the Colony of New Zealand. This Act set up six provinces, each with its own elected council and a general assembly – the forerunner of today’s parliament.

Until 1870 there was no secret ballot and until 1893 (when women got the vote) only adult males who occupied a dwelling of a moderate value or leased land could vote. If the dwelling and land were in separate electorates they were allowed a vote in each electorate.

The notorious Maurice Kelly, timber feller and owner of the Wade Hotel in Silverdale, was an expert manipulator of polls. He was, for a time, representative for the northern region of Auckland Province but there were occasions when he supported other candidates such as Colonel Wynyard. He gave his timber hauling bullocks names on the electoral roll and voted on their behalf. He also kept clothes in a hut near the polling booth so that his gumdigger accomplices could change clothes and vote several times under different names. Kelly is quoted as saying “The partisan electoral officer never asked unpleasant questions and never saw more than was convenient”.

Officials in Auckland were suspicious of electioneering at the Wade, but Kelly was always one step ahead. At one election an agent from Auckland arrived at the Wade to be told by Kelly that the polling station was at Wainui and by the time he had been to Wainui and returned to the Wade, Kelly had polled even more bullocks and more gumdiggers.

In an interview with a reporter from The Weekly News in 1888, Kelly declared his ‘honesty’ in that he never took money from more than one candidate at a time “telling him right out whether he would vote for him or not.”