Some elections are more memorable than others. The 1953 State election is famous in Armidale because the winning margin was a mere 13 votes, but not as tight as the result in the 1959 State election in Lismore where the margin was just two votes. That election also became memorable in Armidale because (1) the winning candidate did not take part in the campaign; (2) he got a lot of sympathy after mud was thrown while he was incapacitated; (3) the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) ran a candidate to split the Labor vote; and (4) the outcome of the election gave rise to the quirky expression “Labor’s Love lost”, because Percy Love, the Labor candidate, came second, after fighting with one hand tied behind his back. Curiously, the story of the 1959 election is not as well known as it should be, but will be told in thematic segments in this column during the next four weeks.
Let’s start at the beginning, when Labor became the Government in NSW after a massive win in May 1941. Labor then won the next five elections and, by 1959, had held office for 18 years, but had just a three-seat majority in 1959, holding 49 of the 94 seats. Joe Cahill had been the Premier for almost seven years. The Government’s support had been eroded by years of allegations of corruption and conflict within the Labor Party. The DLP was in the race for the first time in 1959 and that factor contributed to the widespread expectations Labor would be defeated.
On Monday, February 16, 1959 the NSW Cabinet decided a General Election would be held on March 21. When nominations closed at midday on Friday, February 20, the three candidates contesting the Armidale seat were Davis Hughes (Country Party); Percy Love (Labor) and Jack Stanley (DLP).
Davis Hughes was born in Launceston, Tasmania, on November 24, 1910. He was educated at Launceston High School and the University of Tasmania, where he studied science but did not graduate, a detail which would cause problems in the 1959 campaign. He was a teacher from 1927 to 1935. He married Joan Johnson in 1940 and they had one son and two daughters. Hughes served in the RAAF from 1939 to 1945 with the rank of Squadron Leader.
After the war, Hughes came to Armidale and taught at The Armidale School. He was Senior Science Master and Deputy Head Master from 1947 to 1950. Elected as an alderman on the Armidale City Council in 1947, he was still serving in 1950. His background made him a very suitable candidate to contest the by-election for the Armidale seat in February 1950. He won it and retained it at the General Election in June 1950. Hughes lost the seat by 13 votes in February 1953, but regained it in February 1956 after defeating Jim Cahill (the Labor candidate) who had won the seat in 1953.
In May 1958 Hughes was elected the Leader of the Country Party, and had held the job for just eight months when the 1959 election was called.
Hughes did not get his party’s campaign off to a good start. On the eve of Cabinet announcing the election date, Hughes was admitted to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney for observation for a suspected gastric complaint, which was said to be a recurrence of an attack he suffered several months earlier. Doctors reported that his new condition was not serious and he would be discharged in a few days. But two weeks later he was still in hospital and his condition was described as serious.
The Deputy Leader of the Country Party, Charles Cutler from Orange, became the party’s Acting Leader and came to Armidale to share the platform in the Town Hall with Pat (Philip Henry) Morton, the Liberal Party Leader, on March 4. They delivered the Joint Rural Policy Speech of the Liberal Party of Australia and the Australian Country Party. The speech concentrated on decentralisation, promising a new Department of Decentralisation and Development, and a Development Corporation to coordinate private investment in regional areas.
Also included in the policy were plans for money to be made available for housing; free transport for all children to and from school; greater freedom for local government; provision for secret ballots in union elections to remove domination by Communists; and the expansion of hospital services.
A huge round backdrop on the stage exceeded the dimensions allowed by the Electoral Act. The infringement was reported to the Returning Officer (Ray Farrell), who was accompanied by a Police Sergeant when he met with Country Party officials at Tattersall’s Hotel after the public meeting in the Town Hall. The officials promised to surrender the offending item next morning, but by then it had disappeared.
Earlier the Returning Officer had requested the removal of a sign from the Labor candidate’s work place because the sign infringed the Electoral Act.
At the beginning of the campaign the Country Party had been asked to remove an offending sign over the footpath in front of the party’s office in Beardy Street. Clearly, the Returning Officer, who would not allow misconduct in his usual work as a teacher at Armidale High School, was applying the same rigor to running the election.
Next week we’ll look at the rise of the DLP and the campaign of Jack Stanley, who was denounced not only by Labor, but also by one of the local clergy, who in turn was howled down by DLP supporters.
