The by-election, which was held on 13 August, was won by the late Prime Minister's second son, Vincent Ward against James Hargest.

Sir Joseph Ward had suffered a defeat in the 1919 election, was ageing and often of poor health.

He managed to get re-elected in the Invercargill electorate in the 1925 election, when he had a "wafer-thin 159-vote victory" over James Hargest of the Reform Party.

Under pressure from party colleagues, he resigned as Prime Minister due to ill health in May 1930.

[5] Hargest claimed that as a director of a North Island company, Ward as an absentee could not effectively represent the Invercargill electorate.

[9] The local Labour Party branch apparently had decided on the Rev John Archer, at the time the Mayor of Christchurch, as their first choice.