Over much confusion, caused by government gazette notices that appeared to contravene the Municipal Corporations Act, as to whether an election needed to be held, the members of the previous town board agreed that by their interpretation, they would constitute the inaugural council and thus had to elect one of their members as the first mayor.
[2] In December 1876, the first election at large was held and Arthur Seymour beat John Godfrey.
[5] Syms resigned in May 1879 and a by-election was to be held on 14 June,[6] but Williams was the only candidate nominated by 31 May and once again took the office.
[10] The subsequent election on 24 November 1880 was won by Alex Thompson, who defeated Captain Lachlan MacNeil.
[14] The complication was that the returning officer, Joshua Green, died an hour before nominations closed.