Given today is the local government elections I thought it fitting to look at some past results. Here are the results from the State Election of 1894 for the Division of Paddington (remember there were no Federal Elections back then):
Candidate (Party) - Votes
Byrne, Stephen Albyn (Labor Party) 309
Cowper, William (Ind. Free Trade) 2
Dillon, James (Ind. Free Trade) 77
Godfrey, Alfred (Ind. Free Trade) 4
Kirby, Roger Thomas (Ind. Protectionist) 38
Robinson, John (Ind. Protectionist) 7
Shipway, William Charles (Free Trade) 731
West, Thomas John (Ind. Free Trade) 390
White, John (Protectionist) 420
Whysall, Maitland Edwin Smedley (Ind. Free Trade) 15
Formal votes - 1,993
The first thing I noticed is that it didn't take much to be elected to Parliament back in the day. But you need to remember that not everyone got to vote back then. Certainly not women, they were to get the vote in NSW in 1902. To get an "Elector's Right" (see photo above for an example) you had to be "qualified in respect of Manhood and in Residence of such Division". Qualifying for manhood was simple, you needed to be a bloke and over 21. Of course, you did need to be a natural born citizen or a naturalised person who had resided in NSW for three years. Residence is also fairly straightforward but the 1894 election was the first to happen without "plural voting", which was being able to vote anywhere you qualified, this meant if you were a landowner in multiple electorates you had a vote in each, from 1894 onwards it was only one vote per man (or from 1902 per person) where you lived. If you think this governance set-up was primitive remember that prior to the Electoral Reform Act of 1858 only landowners could vote (only an estimated 25% of the male population). The 1858 Act also brought in secret voting which was such a novelty it was referred to as the "Australian ballot" worldwide.
The second thing I noticed was that these elections were first past the post so Shipway was returned for Paddington with only just over 36% of the vote. Another thing is the proliferation of candidates nominally attached to one of the major parties. Despite that, it appears Paddington was definitely a bastion of free trade back in the day with the Protectionists not doing so well (the Free Traders won the election of 1894 with Sir George Reid becoming Premier).
Eagle-eyed readers may recognise a name from the Sands Directory of 1893. That is Cambridge Street's own Roger Kirby of "Candelo", 46 Cambridge Street. He only garnered 38 votes but that placed him a respectable 6th place (out of ten). Local landlord and alderman James Dillon fared only marginally better with his 77 votes securing 5th place. I did a little more research on Roger as I figured he must have been fairly well known to throw his hat in the ring and I was right.
Turns out Roger was an Alderman on Paddington Council. The following extract from the SMH of 10 February 1886 has the electoral results. Roger Kirby remained on council until 1890.
In 1899 he attained a little notoriety from an incident when he appeared at the Water Police Court before Mr GH Smithers Stipendiary Magistrate, charged with drunkenness and "maliciously injuring the uniform cape" of Constable Linegar. He was ordered to pay a fine of 5s for the drunkenness and a fine of 10s, with 27s 4d amount of damage, or go to prison for 21 days for the uniform discretion. At the time he was 62 years old and described of independent means.
But it turns he was a bit of a political animal back in the day. In the NSW election prior to 1894, held in 1891, Roger Kirby also threw his hat in the ring. Strangely not for the Paddington electorate but for the South Coast electorate of Eden (despite being a Sydney resident). At the time it was actually quite common to contest electorates as a non-resident but even today that 450km journey from Paddington is estimated by google maps as taking 6 hours.
A little more digging turns up that Roger had earlier set himself up down there. In a little southern NSW town called Candelo no less (which is in the Bega shire and would've been in the Eden electorate back then). The following is from the Australian Town and Country Journal from November 1877:
So it looks like you can take the boy out of Candelo but you can't take the Candelo out of the boy, and solves one question as to why 46 Cambridge Street was named "Candelo" in the first place.
The second thing I noticed was that these elections were first past the post so Shipway was returned for Paddington with only just over 36% of the vote. Another thing is the proliferation of candidates nominally attached to one of the major parties. Despite that, it appears Paddington was definitely a bastion of free trade back in the day with the Protectionists not doing so well (the Free Traders won the election of 1894 with Sir George Reid becoming Premier).
Eagle-eyed readers may recognise a name from the Sands Directory of 1893. That is Cambridge Street's own Roger Kirby of "Candelo", 46 Cambridge Street. He only garnered 38 votes but that placed him a respectable 6th place (out of ten). Local landlord and alderman James Dillon fared only marginally better with his 77 votes securing 5th place. I did a little more research on Roger as I figured he must have been fairly well known to throw his hat in the ring and I was right.
Turns out Roger was an Alderman on Paddington Council. The following extract from the SMH of 10 February 1886 has the electoral results. Roger Kirby remained on council until 1890.
In 1899 he attained a little notoriety from an incident when he appeared at the Water Police Court before Mr GH Smithers Stipendiary Magistrate, charged with drunkenness and "maliciously injuring the uniform cape" of Constable Linegar. He was ordered to pay a fine of 5s for the drunkenness and a fine of 10s, with 27s 4d amount of damage, or go to prison for 21 days for the uniform discretion. At the time he was 62 years old and described of independent means.
But it turns he was a bit of a political animal back in the day. In the NSW election prior to 1894, held in 1891, Roger Kirby also threw his hat in the ring. Strangely not for the Paddington electorate but for the South Coast electorate of Eden (despite being a Sydney resident). At the time it was actually quite common to contest electorates as a non-resident but even today that 450km journey from Paddington is estimated by google maps as taking 6 hours.
A little more digging turns up that Roger had earlier set himself up down there. In a little southern NSW town called Candelo no less (which is in the Bega shire and would've been in the Eden electorate back then). The following is from the Australian Town and Country Journal from November 1877:
So it looks like you can take the boy out of Candelo but you can't take the Candelo out of the boy, and solves one question as to why 46 Cambridge Street was named "Candelo" in the first place.
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