The Trinity Bay Election Trial, 1894: Electioneering and Local Government (Research NOTES‪)‬

THE PURPOSE OF this Research Note is to add something to what is known about local politics and government in late nineteenth-century Newfoundland. The subject has not been much studied, though relevant information can be found in work by Kenneth Kerr and John Greene. (1) Greene used the same source material as does this note, that is, the evidence provided to the Supreme Court in 1894 during a series of cases dealing with corrupt practices allegedly committed during the 1893 general election campaign. The trial evidence is a valuable but neglected resource, and deserves detailed study. This note focuses on one of the trials only, that involving the three Liberal Party members returned for the electoral district of Trinity Bay--Sir William Whiteway, Premier and Attorney General; his deputy Robert Bond, who held the important portfolio of Colonial Secretary; and James H. Watson, a merchant at Hant's Harbour. (2) The documentation surveyed includes the evidence given by witnesses in court and the judge's final decision. (3) I was unable to find the original election petition, the opening and closing statements of counsel for the petitioner and respondents, and the exhibits filed with the court. As a supplementary source, I have used the first judgement delivered in this series of trials (by Sir J.S. Winter in the Bay de Verde case), since it lays out the relevant context in some detail. (4)