17th General Assembly of Newfoundland

17th General Assembly of Newfoundland
17th General Assembly of Newfoundland
	Colonial Building seat of the Newfoundland government and the House of Assembly from January 28, 1850, to July 28, 1959.
History
Founded	1894
Disbanded	1897
Preceded by	16th General Assembly of Newfoundland
Succeeded by	18th General Assembly of Newfoundland
Leadership
Premier	William Whiteway (1894), Liberal Party
Premier	Augustus F. Goodridge (1894), Tory Party
Premier	Daniel J. Greene (1894–1895), Liberal Party
Premier	William Whiteway (1895–1897), Liberal Party
Elections
Last election	1893 Newfoundland general election

The members of the 17th General Assembly of Newfoundland were elected in the Newfoundland general election held in November 1893. The general assembly sat from 1894 to 1897.

The Liberal Party led by William Whiteway formed the government. The Tory Party filed petitions against 15 Liberals including Whiteway and James Murray, an independent, alleging corrupt practices during the election; the results of those elections were set aside. The Tory Party temporarily held the majority and formed a government led by Augustus F. Goodridge in 1894. Following the by-elections, the Liberals regained the majority and formed a government led by Daniel J. Greene. After Whiteway won re-election in a by-election, he became Premier again.^[1]

George Emerson was chosen as speaker.^[2]

Sir Terence O'Brien served as colonial governor of Newfoundland until 1895,^[3] when he was replaced by Sir Herbert Harley Murray.^[4]

On December 8, 1894, London banks suspended credit to the Commercial Bank of Newfoundland and requested payment on some of its loans. The bank was unable to meet these obligations and requested its merchant customers to repay their loans; the merchants, themselves financially strapped, were unable to comply. On October 10, known as Black Monday, the Commercial Bank closed. This caused a run by customers on the two remaining banks, the Union Bank of Newfoundland and the Savings Bank of Newfoundland. The Savings Bank was able to cash a large cheque at the Union Bank, but the Union Bank was subsequently forced to close. Neither of the two closed banks would ever reopen. This resulted in the devaluation of Newfoundland's currency, the shutdown of many businesses and widespread unemployment in the colony. Early in 1895, banks from Canada opened branches in Newfoundland to fill the void. The value of the Newfoundland dollar was set to the same value as the Canadian dollar.^[5]

Members of the Assembly

The following members were elected to the assembly in 1893:^[6]

Member	Electoral district	Affiliation
Henry J. B. Woods	Bay de Verde	Liberal
George E. Moores	Bay de Verde	Liberal
Donald Morison	Bonavista	Tory
Alfred B. Morine
Samuel Blandford
James Murray	Burgeo-La Poile	Independent
Dr. James S. Tait	Burin	Liberal
William B. Payne	Burin	Liberal
William Duff	Carbonear	Liberal
Michael P. Cashin	Ferryland	Liberal
Daniel J. Greene	Ferryland	Liberal
Thomas C. Duder	Fogo	Tory
James O. Fraser, Jr.	Fortune Bay	Tory
Henry Dawe	Harbour Grace	Tory
Robert S. Munn		Tory
Eli Dawe		Liberal
Frank J. Morris	Harbour Main	Liberal
William Woodford	Harbour Main	Liberal
James McGrath	Placentia and St. Mary's	Liberal
George Emerson		Liberal
William J. S. Donnelly		Tory
Charles Dawe	Port de Grave	Tory
Alexander A. Parsons	St. Barbe	Liberal
James W. Keating	St. George's	Liberal
James Patrick Fox	St. John's East	Liberal
Thomas J. Murphy		Liberal
Lawrence O'Brien Furlong		Tory
Edward Morris	St. John's West	Liberal
James C. Tessier
Maurice W. Furley
William Whiteway	Trinity	Liberal
Robert Bond
James H. Watson
Jabez P. Thompson	Twillingate	Liberal
Augustus F. Goodridge		Tory
Michael T. Knight		Tory

Notes:

By-elections

By-elections were held to replace members for various reasons:

Electoral district	Member elected	Affiliation	Election date	Reason
Bay de Verde	Sydney Woods	Liberal	May 22, 1894	Results of 1893 election set aside^[6]
Bay de Verde	John B. Ayre	Tory	May 22, 1894	Results of 1893 election set aside^[6]
Burgeo-La Poile	Henry Y. Mott	Tory	September 10, 1894	Results of 1893 election set aside^[6]
Bonavista	Donald Morison	Tory	October 2, 1894	D Morrison named to cabinet; required to run for reelection^[6]
Bonavista	Alfred B. Morine	Tory		A B Morine named to cabinet; required to run for reelection^[6]
Fogo	Thomas C. Duder	Tory		T C Duder named to cabinet; required to run for reelection^[6]
Trinity	William H. Horwood	Liberal	October 16, 1894	Results of 1893 election set aside^[6]
	George W. Gushue
	George M. Johnson
Twillingate	Gilles Foote	Liberal		M T Knight named to cabinet; required to run for reelection^[6]
Burin	James J. Pitman	Liberal	November 10, 1894	Results of 1893 election set aside^[6]
Burin	Henry Gear	Liberal		Results of 1893 election set aside^[6]
Placentia and St. Mary's	Richard T. McGrath	Liberal		Results of 1893 election set aside^[6]
	Michael Tobin			Results of 1893 election set aside^[6]
	John T. Dunphy			WJS Donnelly named to cabinet; required to run for reelection^[6]
St. John's East	John P. Fox	Liberal		Results of 1893 election set aside^[6]
St. John's East	Charles Hutton	Liberal		Results of 1893 election set aside^[6]
St. John's West	Patrick J. Scott	Liberal		Results of 1893 election set aside^[6]
	G. J. Tessier
	Thomas P. Jackman
St. George's	Michael H. Carty	Liberal	November 12, 1894	Results of 1893 election set aside^[6]
Bay de Verde	Henry J. B. Woods	Liberal	February 27, 1895	S Woods resigned seat^[6]
Harbour Grace	William Whiteway^[6]	Liberal		R S Munn died December 17, 1894^[7]
Harbour Grace	Eli Dawe	Liberal		E Dawe named to cabinet; required to run for reelection^[6]
St. John's West	Patrick J. Scott	Liberal		P J Scott named to cabinet; required to run for reelection^[6]
St. John's West	Edward Patrick Morris	Liberal		G J Tessier resigned seat^[6]
Twillingate	Robert Bond	Liberal	September 16, 1895	JP Thompson resigned seat^[6]

Notes:

References

^ Hiller, J.K. (1994). "Whiteway, Sir William Vallance". In Cook, Ramsay; Hamelin, Jean (eds.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XIII (1901–1910) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
^ "The Speaker of the House of Assembly". House of Assembly.
^ "O'Brien, Sir John Terence Nicholls". Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. Memorial University.
^ "Murray, Sir Herbert Harley". Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. Memorial University.
^ "1894 Bank Crash". Memorial University.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t "Elections". Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador. pp. 698–700.
^ Cuff, Robert H.; Kenney, Paul F. (1990). "Munn, Robert Steward". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XII (1891–1900) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.

[1] Hiller, J.K. (1994). "Whiteway, Sir William Vallance". In Cook, Ramsay; Hamelin, Jean (eds.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XIII (1901–1910) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.

[2] "The Speaker of the House of Assembly". House of Assembly.

[3] "O'Brien, Sir John Terence Nicholls". Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. Memorial University.

[4] "Murray, Sir Herbert Harley". Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. Memorial University.

[5] "1894 Bank Crash". Memorial University.

[elections-6] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t "Elections". Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador. pp. 698–700.

[7] Cuff, Robert H.; Kenney, Paul F. (1990). "Munn, Robert Steward". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XII (1891–1900) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.

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