William Kaye (Australian politician)

Kaye was born in Yorkshire, England, and arrived in Port Phillip District in February 1842.^[1] He was a partner in a Melbourne firm of squatters' auctioneers, Kaye and Butchart.^[2] He was elected to the first wholly elective Legislative Council for Eastern Province, being sworn in on 1 November 1856.^[1] Kaye was disqualified from the Council on 1 February 1857 for bribery under the Election Act.^[1] He had been found guilty by a committee of the Legislative Council, following a petition by William Highett, alleging that Kaye's payment of £200 to an election agent to campaign for him in the electorate had amounted to bribery. The payment was found to have "induced [the agent] to exert a corrupt influence upon the election, by other means than the giving of money".^[2][3]