1894 Singleton colonial by-election

A by-election for the seat of Singleton in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly was held on 14 August 1894 because Albert Gould (Free Trade) had been appointed Minister for Justice in the Reid ministry.^[1][2] Such ministerial by-elections were usually uncontested and four ministers were re-elected unopposed, James Brunker (East Maitland), Joseph Carruthers (St George), Jacob Garrard (Sherbrooke) and James Young (The Manning). A poll was required in Bathurst (Sydney Smith), Hartley (Joseph Cook), Singleton and Sydney-King (George Reid) however all were comfortably re-elected.^[3]

1894 Singleton colonial by-election

← July 1894 14 August 1894 1895 →
Electoral district of Singleton in the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales
Turnout	63.0 % ( 18.2%)
First party Second party   ALP Candidate Albert Gould Robert Connelly Party Free Trade Labor Popular vote 1,008 452 Percentage 69.0% 31.0%
MLA before election Albert Gould Free Trade Elected MLA Albert Gould Free Trade

Dates

Date	Event
17 July 1894	1894 New South Wales colonial election
3 August 1894	Reid ministry appointed.[4]
4 August 1894	Writ of election issued by the Governor.[5][a]
10 August 1894	Day of nomination
14 August 1894	Polling day
24 August 1894	Return of writ

Result

1894 Singleton by-election
Tuesday 14 August ^[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Free Trade	Albert Gould (re-elected)	1,008	69.0	+22.4
	Labour	Robert Connelly	452	31.0	+9.4
Total formal votes			1,460	98.3	−0.6
Informal votes			25	1.7	+0.6
Turnout			1,485	63.0 [b]	−18.2
	Free Trade hold

See also

• Electoral results for the district of Singleton
• List of New South Wales state by-elections

Notes

1. Ordinarily the writ for a by-election would be issued by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, however the ministers were appointed before Parliament convened and the writs were issued by the Governor.
2. Estimate based on a roll of 2,359 at the July 1894 election.^[6]