The winner of the previous mayoral election, Jack Andrews, resigned towards the end of his fifth term. The council did not hold a by-election due to the closeness to the regularly scheduled election and instead the councillors elected Ernst Peterson Hay in June 1947 to finish the remainder of the term.[1] Hay stood in the election where he was opposed by Labour's Henry "Harry" Saunders who was the chairman of the Boulcott School Committee and president of the Epuni-Waiwhetu branch of the Labour Party. Taking place during a period of rapid population growth in the area, it was the first election after the addition of the new suburb of Taita. Hay won the mayoralty and Saunders was elected a member of both the Hutt Valley Electric Power Board and Petone and Lower Hutt Gas Board, serving for just over a year until his death in December 1948.[3]
