A by-election was held for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly electorate of Gloucester on 10 November 1917 because Richard Price (Independent) was expelled from Parliament for abusing parliamentary privilege by making baseless allegations against William Ashford, the Secretary for Lands.
[1] Price made an allegation in Parliament in December 1916 that Ashford acted corruptly in relation to £80,000 spent on a deviation of the railway line between Dubbo and Werris Creek.
[2] The following year Price made further allegations against Ashford, including that saw mills were being bought at excess values, salaries were being paid that were not authorised by Parliament and that the government had sold land at £4 per acre and then later resumed it for returned soldiers at a price of £8 5s, an excess cost of £36,000.
[3] The response of the government was to appoint Montgomerie Hamilton, a Judge of the District Court,[4] to conduct a Royal Commission into Price's allegations.
[7] The report of the Royal Commission was read in the Legislative Assembly and the contents published in Hansard, which then held, by a vote of 46 to 11, that Price was "guilty of conduct unworthy of a member of Parliament and seriously reflecting upon the honor and dignity of this House".