The City of Christchurch by-election of 1901 was a by-election held on 18 July 1901 during the 14th New Zealand Parliament in the urban seat of the City of Christchurch. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of conservative politician Charles Lewis and won by George John Smith.

Lewis was first elected in the 1896 City of Christchurch by-election. As a conservative, he won despite the electorate being mostly liberal supporters due to vote splitting by two candidates with liberal leanings.^[1][2] Lewis was confirmed by the voters in the 1896 and 1899 general elections, but he found the parliamentary work demanding to his health. At the time, sessions regularly extended into the evening or the early morning, sometimes even all night. He missed the last week of the session in 1900 due to exhaustion. When he called a meeting in Christchurch in June 1901 that was poorly attended, he felt unsupported by the constituency and resigned later that week. Christchurch's main newspaper, The Press, argued that people were focussed on the upcoming royal visit instead.^[3] His resignation was announced in the newspapers on 12 June 1901.^[4]

The by-election was the first election held under the provisions of the Electoral Act Amendment Act, 1900.^[5] The parliamentary session of 1901 opened on 1 July.^[6] The prime minister, Richard Seddon, moved in the House of Representatives on 3 July that the speaker issue writs for the Christchurch and Patea by-elections.^[7] The Christchurch registrar of elections received the writ on 4 July, and that closed the electoral roll.^[8]

The first election meeting was held by Taylor on 3 July, who spoke at the Canterbury Hall under the chairmanship of the Mayor of Christchurch, Arthur Rhodes.^[15] Turnbull's public meetings commenced on 8 July at the Druids' Hall in Colombo Road in Sydenham. In total, Turnbull held eight public meetings.^[21] Smith also commenced his series of public meetings on Monday, 8 July.^[22] A total of 23 public meetings were held by the three candidates, as per the table below:

There was little political difference between Turnbull and Smith, as both were independent Liberals with fairly similar views. Their only real point of difference was that Smith was a prohibitionist (although much more moderate than Tommy Taylor), whilst Turnbull was in favour of temperance.^[23] Charles Taylor, on the other hand, was a staunch advocate for labour interests.^[9]

The election was held on 18 July 1901. There were a total of fourteen polling booths throughout the electorate: nine in Christchurch, three in Sydenham, and two in St Albans.^[24] When the resignation of Lewis was received, an election official purged the electoral roll that had been compiled for the 1899 general election by several thousand names, and invited people new to the electorate to enrol. With limited time available for enrolment, the final roll had 17,268 names, 4083 fewer than the 1899 electoral roll.^[12] Smith beat Charles Taylor and Arthur Hughes Turnbull.^[25]