Hokitika by-election, 1878
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Seymour Thorne George
Independent
The Hokitika by-election 1878 was a by-election held in the multi-member Hokitika electorate during the 6th New Zealand Parliament, on 26 June 1878. The by-election was caused by the resignation of incumbent MP Charles Button and was won by Seymour Thorne George, who defeated Gerard George Fitzgerald. Thorne George was suggested as a candidate by the premier, Sir George Grey; he was the Premier's nephew, and lived in the North Island.
Button had first been elected to the House of Representatives in the 1876 general election. He had contested the two-member Hokitika electorate with four other candidates, and as the second-highest polling candidate, he was successful; the other successful candidate was Edmund Barff. When Hokitika electorate constituents passed a resolution in 1878 that thanked Button but expressed regret that he did not support Sir George Grey, Button handed in his resignation on 22 May.
Electors presented a petition to Robert Reid, asking to allow him to be nominated, but he declined as his business affairs needed his attention. Reid had been one of the candidates in the 1876 election, and had been narrowly beaten into third place. Another person asked to stand was the shop keeper and lay preacher D. W. Virtue, but he also declined.
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