Auckland (New Zealand electorate)

Auckland (or, more formally, City of Auckland) was a New Zealand electorate. It covered the core of Auckland during the early days of New Zealand democracy, when the city was small enough to be covered by two or three seats.

Population centres

The City of Auckland electorate was one of the original electorates, and was used in the country's first elections. It covered a territory roughly corresponding to the central business district of the city today, and was surrounded by another electorate called Auckland Suburbs. As the city was growing rapidly, however, the electorate did not last long — in the 1860 elections, it was divided into Auckland East and Auckland West.^[1]

At the 1890 elections, however, the total number of seats was reduced. This necessitated the re-creation of a seat to cover all of inner Auckland. This was accomplished by merging most of Auckland Central, Auckland West, Auckland North and Ponsonby, and taking a considerable amount of Parnell. In the 1893 elections, the seat absorbed most of Newton electorate, but lost some of its southern territories to the remnants of Parnell. In 1902 elections, Grey Lynn was split away into its own electorate. In the 1905 elections, the remainder of the electorate was split in three, becoming Auckland Central, Auckland East, and Auckland West.^[1]

History

The 1890 election was contested by seven candidates. John Shera, Thomas Thompson and William Lee Rees received 2006, 1860 and 1761 votes, respectively, and were elected. Adam Porter, William Joseph Napier, James Wallis and Harry Farnall received 1501, 1319, 748 and 262 votes, respectively, and were unsuccessful.^[2][3]

Members of Parliament

Key

  Independent     Liberal  

Election	Winner(s)
1853 election		Thomas Bartley		Loughlin O'Brien		James O'Neill
1854 by-election		William Brown
1855 election		Thomas Beckham		William Daldy		Logan Campbell
1858 by-election						Thomas Forsaith
1860 by-election		Archibald Clark[4]
(Electorate abolished 1861–1890 and split in two, see Auckland East and Auckland West; from 1887–1890 also Auckland Central)
1890 election		William Lee Rees		John Shera		Thomas Thompson
1893 by-election		Alfred Cadman
1893 election		Charles Button		William Crowther		George Grey
1895 by-election						Thomas Thompson
1896 election		James Job Holland
1899 election		William Napier				George Fowlds
1900 by-election				Joseph Witheford
1902 election		Frederick Baume				Alfred Kidd
(Electorate abolished 1905 and split in three, see Auckland Central, Auckland East, and Auckland West)

Election results

1899 election

General election, 1899: Auckland[5][6][7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Joseph Napier	6,097	47.29
	Opposition	William Crowther	5,595	43.40	+17.72
	Liberal	George Fowlds	4,751	36.85	-12.07
	Liberal	James Job Holland	4,657	36.12	-15.19
	Opposition	Richard Hobbs	4,647	36.05
	Liberal	Frederick Baume	3,792	29.41
	Liberal-Labour	Arthur Rosser	3,511	27.23	-10.87
	Opposition	Samuel Vaile	2,456	19.05
	Liberal-Labour	James Regan	1,470	11.40
	Independent Liberal	Robert French	1,366	10.60
	Independent Liberal	Patrick Quinlan	334	2.59
Majority			94	0.73	-10.09
Registered electors			18,336
Turnout			12,892	70.31	+9.56

1896 election

General election, 1896: Auckland[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Thompson	7,192	58.60	+19.85
	Liberal	James Job Holland	6,298	51.32
	Opposition	William Crowther	6,004	48.92	+3.96
	Liberal-Labour	Arthur Rosser[9]	4,676	38.10
	Opposition	Charles Button	4,008	32.66	-8.68
	Opposition	Edwin Mitchelson	3,620	29.50
	Liberal	George Fowlds	3,152	25.68
	Independent	John Fawcus	906	7.38
	Liberal	John McEffer Shera	609	4.96	-2.82
	Independent	Ernest Eugster	354	2.88
Majority			1,328	10.82
Registered electors			20,204
Turnout			12,273	60.75	+0.02

1895 by-election

City of Auckland by-election, 1895[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Thompson	5,528	60.99
	Opposition	Richard Monk	3,535	39.01
Majority			1,993	21.99
Turnout			9,063

1893 election

General election, 1893: City of Auckland[11][12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	George Grey	6,379	62.57
	Liberal	William Crowther	4,584	44.96
	Opposition	Charles Button	4,214	41.34
	Independent	Thomas Tudehope[13]	4,146	40.67
	Liberal	Thomas Thompson	3,950	38.75
	Liberal	William Napier	3,531	34.64
	Independent	Edward Withy[13]	2,393	23.47
	Liberal	John Shera	793	7.78
	Liberal	Samuel Vaile[13]	502	4.92
	Liberal	Thomas Fernandez	92	0.90
Majority			68	0.67
Turnout			10,195	60.73
Registered electors			16,788

1893 by-election

City of Auckland by-election, 1893[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Alfred Cadman	1,888	62.51
	Liberal	William Lee Rees	1,132	37.48
Majority			751	24.86
Turnout			3,020

1853 election

General election, 1853: Auckland[15]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Loughlin O'Brien	415	84.46
	Independent	James O'Neill	391	79.58
	Independent	Thomas Bartley	269	54.75
	Independent	John Makepeace	257	52.31
	Independent	William Daldy	142	28.90
Majority			12[mb 1]	2.44
Turnout			491[mb 2]	62.27
Registered electors			789

Table footnotes:

1. Majority is difference between lowest winning poll (Bartley – 269) and highest losing poll (Makepeace – 257).
2. As electors had three votes each, turnout is assumed to be the sum of votes divided by three.

References

1. Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
2. "The General Election, 1890". National Library. 1891. p. 1. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
3. "Auckland City". Auckland Star XXI (280). 27 November 1890. p. 5. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
4. Cyclopedia Company Limited (1902). "Mr. Archibald Clark". The Cyclopedia of New Zealand : Auckland Provincial District. Christchurch. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
5. "The General Election, 1899". Wellington: Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives. 19 June 1900. p. 1. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
6. "City of Auckland Electorate". Observer. XVIII (1092). 2 December 1899. p. 17. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
7. "Auckland City". Observer. XVIII (1093). 9 December 1899. p. 3. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
8. "The General Election". Auckland Star. XXVII (305). 23 December 1896. p. 6. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
9. Husbands, Paul. "Rosser, Arthur". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved December 2011.
10. "Decisive Victory for Mr Thompson". Fielding Star XVII (22). 25 July 1895. p. 2. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
11. The General Election, 1893. Government Printer. 1894. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
12. "The General Election". Otago Daily Times. 28 November 1893. p. 6. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
13. "Electorate City of Auckland". Auckland Star XXIV (274). 18 November 1893. p. 8. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
14. "Auckland Election". Hawera & Normanby Star XXVI (2497). 5 August 1893. p. 2. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
15. "Representative Assembly". Daily Southern Cross X (639). 12 August 1853. p. 3. Retrieved 15 June 2015.