Nomination meeting

The meeting for nominations for the by-election was held in the Tokomairiro Court House in Milton—which in those days was called Tokomairiro or Tokomairaro—on 31 March 1865. Up until two years previously, the Court House in Dunedin hosted the nomination meeting, and this was the first Bruce election with the nominations held in Tokomairiro.^[7][12] The Returning Officer John Dewe—having read the election notice and the writ—called upon the various electors to declare their nominations of candidates. The number of electors present was approximately 30, yet for a considerable time no elector announced their nomination.^[9][14]

Finally, John Hardy gave a speech in which he expressed his astonishment that despite Bruce being one of the most developed parliamentary constituencies, no candidate had yet been nominated by the electors. He then announced his nomination of Henry Clapcott, the Treasurer of Otago Province at the time, as a person who he thought would be a suitable representative for the electorate. M. B. Power seconded that nomination. Some speakers opposed Clapcott's nomination, as the provincial superintendent (John Hyde Harris) and the provincial speaker (John L. C. Richardson) were already members of the House of Representatives, and Clapcott as the third-ranked provincial executive member would leave an ineffective executive behind to run Otago.^[9]

E. Marryatt proposed William John Dyer, seconded pro forma by H. Clark. Before he announced his nomination, John Lillie Gillies signalled that he was about to propose someone who was well known among those who lived in the electorate. After a speech, Gillies announced his nomination and stated that he was sure that the electors could not find a more honest candidate than Arthur John Burns, who he then announced as the candidate he would like to propose. James Smith seconded that nomination.^[9]

No other candidates were proposed and the Returning Officer called for Dyer to give a speech to the electors regarding what he would advocate for and his goals if he became the Member of Parliament for Bruce. However, before Dyer made his speech John Hardy stepped in and asked if he could say some words as Henry Clapcott's representative, an action opposed by other electors. Hardy said that in reply to some observations by J. L. Gillies regarding the state of the province of Otago without a treasurer— he would then also like to nominate Marryatt—who himself had nominated someone. The observations were concerning the fact that Clapcott would be forced to resign as Treasurer to take up his role as MP for Bruce. Marryatt had opposed the stepping in of Hardy, without a clue that he would be nominated for the role. Laughingly, J. L. Gillies seconded that nomination. However, Gillies said that an elector may only nominate one person for a role at an election. The Returning Officer then justified that an elector may nominate as many people as they like. Returning the compliment, Marryatt nominated Hardy for the role, seconded by George E. Brown. However, the Returning Officer took no notice of the nominations, stating that it was immature of the electors to make a joke on such a serious duty. Multiple electors then said that some fun at an election was expected, a stance which the Returning Officer disagreed with.^[9]

After the interruption, Dyer came forward and delivered his speech. During his speech, Dyer explained that he was a separationist, though not to the extremes as some of the Separation League, a supporter of the elimination of the House of Representatives, and could see no reason why the Chinese could not come to New Zealand like any other people.^[9]

Burns said in his speech that he had no idea that he would be a candidate for the electorate, and therefore did not have enough time to prepare a speech, so he made it up along the way. He stated that if he became a Member of Parliament for Bruce, he would endeavour to act in a straightforward manner. In response to questions, Burns stated that he was an advocate for free trade. He also stated that he was against separationism, the act of dividing the North and South Islands, and that although he supported the use of income tax, he was against a stamp act or newspaper postage.^[9][15]

Henry Clapcott was not present at the nomination meeting.^[9]

After the speeches the Returning Officer called for a show of hands. The results were as follows:^[9][15]

The Returning Officer then declared the results to be in favour of Burns. Supporters of Clapcott demanded an election on his behalf, which was held on 8 April 1865.^[9][16][17] According to reports, Burns was deemed the most likely candidate to win the by-election, an interpretation which turned out to be correct.^{[17][18][19][20]}

Results by polling booth

There were eight polling booths, and this was an increase by five since the last election held.^[7] The new booths were located at three school houses, in Waihola, Lawrence, and Inch Clutha, at the station of Captain Francis Wallace Mackenzie in Pomahaka, and at the courthouse in Dunedin.^[7] The latter booth was located outside of the electorate, but many of the electors resided in Dunedin.^{[7][lower-alpha 2]} The polling booths that remained the same as at the 1862 by-election were the Court House at Tokomairiro (the place where the nomination meeting was held), and at the schoolhouses in Warepa and East Taieri.^[24] At the polling booth of East Taieri, four people voted whose names were not included on the electoral roll.^[17][18] Those votes were not included in the official count.^[18] Despite there being 280 electors enrolled in Tokomairiro, only 65 (23.2%) of them cast a vote in the by-election, a statistic that could have changed the election.^[20][29] The following table shows detailed results.^[17]