1967 Palmerston North by-election

The by-election resulted from the death of the sitting member Bill Brown of the National Party on 16 October 1967. Brown had held the seat since 1960, when he won it from Philip Skoglund of the Labour Party.

Labour

The Labour Party ran Joe Walding, its candidate at the previous election, for the by-election. Walding, a food exporter and Palmerston North City Councillor since 1959, had polled well in the 1966 election where he led the count on election night, but special votes tipped to give Brown a 259 vote victory.[1]

National

The National Party selected Palmerston North City Councillor Gordon Cruden as its candidate.[2]

Social Credit

The Social Credit Party had four nominees to stand in the seat. Three withdrew in favour of the party's deputy leader John O'Brien. In the previous three elections he had contested the Manawatu electorate.[3]

Others

Jamie Wedderspoon, a 22-year-old political science student at Victoria University, stood as a candidate. Wedderspoon, who was a member of the Labour Party for 6½ years, disagreed on Labour's position of opposing the Vietnam War and believed that New Zealand should keep troops in Vietnam to fight communist expansion.[4]

The newly formed centrist Democratic Progress Party selected Mr J. Goldingham, the manager of the Palmerston North branch of a sewing machine company, as their candidate.[5]

The following table contains the election results:

The by-election was won by Joe Walding of the Labour Party, and he held the seat for the next two elections, 1969 and 1972.[6]

• Norton, Clifford (1988). New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946–1987: Occasional Publications No 1, Department of Political Science. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington. p. 251. ISBN 0-475-11200-8.
• Wood, G. A. (1996) [1987]. Ministers and Members in the New Zealand Parliament (2 ed.). Dunedin: University of Otago Press. p. 113. ISBN 1-877133-00-0.