1859 Town of Dunedin by-election

[1] The election was won by Macandrew, who had resigned from his seat on 2 November 1858 as a result of not attending a parliamentary session earlier in his term.

[1] In an account in the 15 January 1859 issue of the Otago Witness, Mr. Grant was said to have delivered a long speech in which he alluded to Macandrew's absence from the General Assembly, and that he would push for the General Assembly to allocate funds for the establishment of a university in Wellington or Nelson.

[1] During his speech, Macandrew said that he would push for banks to be as cheap as stores, that he would support the idea of having fewer laws, and that he would support the intention of seeing a simpler form of registration used—a system in which a person could sell their properties with no intervention of lawyers among other conservative ideas.

[1] Again according to the Otago Witness, Dyer's stance differed quite a bit from Macandrew with regard to being solicited to take a seat, Dyer thought it was or should be a point of ambition with every person to hold a place in the House of Representatives; he thought that no doubt it was a large responsibility to make laws for future generations and that he would vote for allocating funds to be put into the education of the Māori people in the province of Otago.

[5] William John Dyer, who had withdrawn his nomination for representative of the electorate two years earlier for the by-election, contested the election.