Old Invercargill
From 1993: Tim Shadbolt wins the Invercargill mayoral race, as reported in The Southland Times.
Final Tribute Set For Sir Tim Shadbolt - Public Funeral Service
A public funeral service to honour the life and legacy of Sir Tim Shadbolt will be held at Invercargill’s Civic Theatre next Friday. Sir Tim, who served as Invercargill’s longest-standing Mayor and was knighted in 2019, passed away on Thursday, 8 January, aged 78. The service will take
Mike Sanford
Invercargill gets pretty radical
The rest of New Zealand was amazed when former student radical Tim Shadbolt was elected Mayor of Invercargill — “annihilating several high profile local contenders in the process,” the Times reported.
Mr Shadbolt was one of the 14 candidates for the position at an election on March 20 to fill the vacancy caused by the death on Boxing Day of Mrs Eve Poole.
The former Mayor of Waitemata, who was defeated in 1989 after two terms, had stood for the mayoralties of Auckland, Waitemata and Dunedin at the 1992 local body elections, coming third in each campaign.
His arrival in the south to seek the Invercargill mayoralty added spice to a campaign which attracted 15 candidates (one candidate, George Te Au, later withdrew for health reasons).
It was said that 15 candidates were enough for a rugby team, but too many for a coherent mayoral election.
Former Southland County Council chairman Sir Erskine Bowmar described the election as a bit of a joke.
Mr Shadbolt ran a strong campaign, which involved an average of five meetings a day for six weeks and two pre-election polls run by the Times predicted a decisive Shadbolt win.
The polls were accurate, for he polled 10,049 votes, or 30.3 percent, for an election night majority of 4,310 over his nearest rival, former Deputy Mayor Bruce Pagan (5,739). Another former deputy mayor, Mark Winter, polled third with 4,791.
Only three of his 13 opponents managed to secure 25 percent of his total to get their deposits back.
Mr Shadbolt said on election night the campaign had been the toughest he had been involved in.
“I’m excited, exhilarated and exhausted. I’m glad it’s over.”
Many of the votes for him were protest votes, he said.
Election night figures were:
Tim Shadbolt 10,049
Bruce Pagan 5,739
Mark Winter 4,791
Mirek Cvigr 3,910
Dougal Soper 1,971
Geoff Piercy 1,221
Janet Maloch 762
Anne Stoddart 718
Neil Boniface 415
Marjorie Jones 268
George Ngatai 114
Katherine Hart 55
Richard Osborn 50
Owen Houlston 42
Mr Shadbolt was sworn in as the city’s 42nd Mayor on March 25. He was rarely out of the headlines — and controversy — during his term.
One of his early duties was to lead an 18-strong Invercargill delegation to Japan for the reciprocal signing of a sister city relationship with Kumagaya.
