The by-election resulted from the death of the previous member the Hon Harry Lake on 21 February 1967; Lake had been Minister of Finance since 1960, a rapid rise to an important ministerial post. He died suddenly of a heart attack aged 55 years.
Candidates
;Labour There were two candidates for the Labour Party nomination.
Bruce Barclay, a member of the Lyttelton Harbour Board who was Labour's Fendalton candidate in and
Barclay was selected. He had contested Fendalton for Labour at both of the previous two general elections. His father Jim Barclay was a Labour MP from 1935 to 1943 and his cousin Ron Barclay had been elected MP for in 1966. ;National There were four nominees for the National Party candidacy.
Joseph Richard "Dick" Dawson, A doctor who was National's candidate for in
Tom Flint, a former Christchurch City Councillor who contested in and in
Helen Garrett, a Citizens' Association candidate for the Christchurch City Council in 1965 and National's candidate for in 1966
Eric Holland, past chairman of the Fendalton Electorate Committee and deputy-chairman National's Canterbury-Westland division
Holland was chosen as the National Party's candidate after winning a ballot of 180 party members from the electorate. His father Sidney Holland had previously represented Fendalton from 1946 until 1957 and was Prime Minister from 1949 to 1957 when he retired. ;Social Credit The Social Credit Party selected Joseph John Forster, an employee at the North Canterbury Hospital Board, as its candidate. Forster had contested Fendalton for Social Credit at the 1960 and 1966 elections. ;Others The Liberal Party also contemplated standing a candidate, though the party executive ultimately decided against it.
Results
The following table gives the election results: The by-election was won by Eric Holland, also of the National Party. Holland was the son of former prime minister Sidney Holland. Despite being a safe National seat, the election night results had a 67-vote majority to Labour's candidate Bruce Barclay, the shock result prompted Leader of the OppositionNorman Kirk to declare that National had lost its mandate to govern. However after 1,300 special votes were counted National did manage to hold the seat by just 286 votes a swing of over 5% to Labour.
