Parnell by-election, 1930
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Harry Reginald Jenkins
Independent
The Parnell by-election of 1930 was a by-election in the seat of Parnell held on 7 May 1930 during the 23rd New Zealand Parliament. The by-election came about because of the resignation of the current member of parliament Harry Reginald Jenkins who chose to re-contest his seat. The seat was won by Bill Endean of the Reform Party.
The election of Jenkins was considered a surprise. Dickson had held the seat 1911 but the New Zealand Reform Party suffered significant losses in this election.
Jenkins was a big supporter of Gordon Coates who was the Prime Minister and leader of the Reform Party before 1928. However, at that election the United and Reform parties won an equal number of seats and the United party formed a coalition with Labour. Therefore, Joseph Ward became Prime Minister. Jenkins was critical of the deal United had done with Labour and so quit the party and became an independent. On 21 March, he then announced that he would resign from the electorate and contest the by-election. This was a controversial move but Michael Joseph Savage believed that he had done the "right thing".
Jenkins, after resigning, decided to join the Reform party and announced that he would try and win selection as their candidate. He said "I feel also that Reform is the safest of the three parties, because Reform will never be dictated to by Labour as the United Party has been." He also stated that he would not run as an independent if he was not selected. There were four Reform nominations for the seat, these were: R. Glover, Jenkins, Bill Endean and James Samuel Dickson. Endean was eventually selected.
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