Akaroa (New Zealand electorate)

Akaroa was a New Zealand electorate. It was located in on Banks Peninsula, in Canterbury, and named after the town of the same name. One of the original 24 electorates, it existed from 1853 to 1893.

Population centres

The Akaroa electorate was named after Akaroa on Banks Peninsula. It covered the peninsula and other rural land near Christchurch. Its boundary was a straight line running due south "from the Conical Rocks midway between the eastern headland of Port Albert, and the western headland of Pigeon Bay, due south across Banks' Peninsula, meeting the sea at the western headland of Island Bay."[1] Its only neighbour was the large, rural electorate of Christchurch Country, which covered most of Canterbury and the West Coast.

In subsequent years, the electorate's boundaries shifted slightly,[2] retreating on the Peninsula's northern coast and expanding on the its southern coast (gaining the Kaitorete Spit, between Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora and the sea).

In the 1871 election, the bulk of Mount Herbert electorate, which covered the land around Lyttelton Harbour except for Lyttelton itself, was absorbed into Akaroa. Later, in the 1887 election, the electorate gained a spur extending almost as far west as Lincoln, but lost this again in the 1890 election. In 1890, the electorate included the town of Lyttelton.[3]

In the 1893 election, Akaroa was merged with the portions of Ellesmere electorate that bordered the lake, with the resulting electorate retaining the name Ellesmere.

History

The electorate of Akaroa was one of the twenty-four original electorates, used in New Zealand's first general election.[4]

In the 1887 election, it was contested by no less than six candidates, more than were contesting any other electorate that year (Invercargill was contested by five candidates).[5]

Alexander McGregor, William Barnett, George Armstrong, George Russell Joblin, Frederick Arthur Anson, and John Edward Thacker received 425, 145, 142, 126, 114 and 52 votes, respectively.[6]

The Lyttelton electorate was abolished for the 1890 election election and the town became part of the Akaroa electorate. Lyttelton's incumbent, John Joyce contested the election against McGregor and William Barnett. Joyce defeated McGregor by 750 to 647 votes, with Barnett coming a distant third.[7]

Members of Parliament

Key

  Independent     Liberal  

Election Winner
1853 election William Moorhouse
1855 election John Cuff
1858 by-election William Moorhouse
1861 election Augustus White
1863 by-election Lancelot Walker
1866 election George Armstrong
1871 election Robert Rhodes
1874 (1st) by-election William Montgomery
1874 (2nd) by-election
1875 election
1879 election
1881 election
1884 election
1887 election Alexander McGregor
1890 election John Joyce
(Electorate abolished 1893, see Ellesmere)

Election results

April 1874 by-election

Akaroa by-election, April 1874[8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Independent William Montgomery 168 68.85
Independent Walter Pilliet 76 31.15
Turnout 244
Majority 92 37.70

1853 election

General election, 1853: Akaroa[9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Independent William Sefton Moorhouse 27 61.36
Independent Robert Heaton Rhodes 17 38.64
Majority 10 22.73
Turnout 44 97.78
Registered electors 45

Notes

  1. ↑ "Registration of Voters". Lyttelton Times IV (168). 25 March 1854. p. 1. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
  2. ↑ Papers Past National Library
  3. ↑ "Akaroa-cum-Lyttelton". The Star (7029). 6 December 1890. Retrieved 19 April 2010.
  4. ↑ Scholefield 1950, p. 154.
  5. ↑ "The General Election, 1887". National Library. 1887. pp. 1–4. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  6. ↑ "The Official Declaration of the Poll". Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser XIV (1169). 30 September 1887. p. 2. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
  7. ↑ "The Elections". Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser XIX (1503). 9 December 1890. p. 2. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
  8. ↑ "General Assembly". The Star (1912). 21 April 1874. Retrieved 9 April 2010.
  9. ↑ "Christchurch". Lyttelton Times III (138). 27 August 1853. p. 7. Retrieved 15 June 2015.

References

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