Mayor of Hokitika

[1][2] The first chairman of the municipal council was James Bonar[3] in 1865,[4] and this role became that of the Mayor of Hokitika in 1866.

[1][5] The second mayor was William Shaw, who successfully contested an election against Charles Button and Evan Prosser on 21 October 1867.

[10] Prosser resigned during May 1869, as he had bought a pharmaceutical business in Dunedin, to where he was going to relocate; Charles Button was voted to replace him as mayor.

[17] At the council meeting on 21 December 1870, James Midgely Higgin was elected mayor in succession to Samuel Boyle.

[18] Higgin foreshadowed his intention to resign at the council meeting on 15 September 1871,[19] and at the adjourned meeting on 19 September, the letter of resignation was read out, and two councillors were nominated: James B. Clarke and George Frederick Hawkins, which Clarke won by five votes to three.

[20] The local newspaper, The West Coast Times, was highly critical of the situation and the new mayor.

The West Coast Times was once again being scathing about the situation, pointing out that 14 votes had been cast by 9 councillors present, hence it could not have been an election for mayor.

[22][23] The disagreement carried into the new year, when a majority of councillors refused to accept the minutes as a true and correct record, stating that Clarke had been re-elected as mayor.