Dunedin and Suburbs South

Last updated

Dunedin and Suburbs South was a parliamentary electorate in the city of Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand from 1862 to 1866. From 1863 it was a multi-member electorate.

Contents

History

During the second session (from 7 July to 15 September 1862) [1] of the 3rd Parliament, the Representation Act 1862 [2] was passed. The Act stipulated that the two-member City of Dunedin electorate was to be abolished in 1863 and replaced with Dunedin and Suburbs North and Dunedin and Suburbs South. Clause 9 of the Act read: [3]

The existing two members of the City of Dunedin shall thenceforth, as long as they retain their seats, be respectively members of the district of Dunedin and suburbs North and Dunedin and suburbs South, in manner following, that is to say, the earliest elected member shall be a member for the district of Dunedin and suburbs North, and the last elected member shall be a member for the district of Dunedin and suburbs South.

The first elected member was Thomas Dick, but he resigned from the City of Dunedin electorate during 1863, so a new election had to be held to determine the representative for Dunedin and Suburbs North. The last elected member was John Richardson, who won the second by-election during 1862 in the City of Dunedin electorate. Richardson resigned on 12 September 1862, [4] so a writ was issued to elect a new member for the City of Dunedin electorate. This caused considerable confusion, as it was assumed that the electorate had ceased to exist, and the new Suburb electorates were to be established. Nevertheless, the returning officer went ahead as per the instructions given by Governor George Grey in the writ. [5]

Following this discussion in the media, the election was not taken seriously. The nomination meeting in November 1862 was attended by "a selected audience of three electors, five boys, half-a-dozen diggers out of luck, one policeman and two reporters." Upon calling for nominations, the three electors had "an earnest discussion" and eventually resolved to put forward James Paterson, who was duly declared elected. [5] Paterson was not present at the meeting, and from the media reporting, it would not appear that he was aware that he was going to be nominated.

Paterson's election to the City of Dunedin electorate was upheld, [6] and being the 'latest elected member', his seat was transferred to the Dunedin and Suburbs South electorate. [7]

A second member was elected to the Dunedin and Suburbs South electorate in April 1863 – William Reynolds. [8] Both members served until the end of the term of the 3rd Parliament in January 1866.

All this happened during the time of the Otago Gold Rush, which led to a significant increase in Otago's population. Changes to electorates reflected this situation. During this time, the Goldfields and later Gold Field Towns electorates were established. [9]

The electorate was abolished in 1866. At that time, the City of Dunedin electorate was re-established. The Dunedin electorates of Caversham, Port Chalmers and Roslyn were all first established in 1866. [9] The vast majority of Dunedin and Suburbs South went to the Caversham electorate. [10]

Members of parliament

The electorate was represented by two members of parliament:

ElectionWinners
1862 by-election James Paterson
(City of Dunedin incumbent)
1863 supplementary election William Reynolds

Election results

Only two elections were contested during the existence of the Dunedin and Suburbs South electorate.

1863 by-election

1863 Dunedin and Suburbs South by-election [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Independent James Paterson 105 59.32
Independent Julius Vogel 7240.68
Turnout 177
Majority3318.64

1863 supplementary election

1863 Dunedin and Suburbs South [12]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Independent William Reynolds 77 64.7
Independent Julius Vogel 3126.1
Independent William Cutten 119.2
Turnout 119
Majority46

Notes

  1. Scholefield 1950, p. 68.
  2. "Representation Act 1862".
  3. "Dunedin, Saturday, December 6". Otago Daily Times. No. 301. 6 December 1862. p. 4. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
  4. Scholefield 1925, p. 129.
  5. 1 2 "Otago". Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle. Vol. XXI, no. 104. 3 December 1862. p. 2. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
  6. "Otago". Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle. Vol. XXI, no. 108. 17 December 1862. p. 3. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
  7. Scholefield 1925, p. 124.
  8. Scholefield 1925, p. 128.
  9. 1 2 Scholefield 1950, pp. 156–163.
  10. McRobie 1989, pp. 35, 37.
  11. "Untitled". Otago Daily Times . 23 June 1863.
  12. "News of the Week". Otago Witness . No. 593. 11 April 1863. p. 5. Retrieved 3 May 2013.

Related Research Articles

The 2nd New Zealand Parliament was a term of the Parliament of New Zealand. It opened on 15 April 1856, following New Zealand's 1855 election. It was dissolved on 5 November 1860 in preparation for 1860–61 election. The 2nd Parliament was the first under which New Zealand had responsible government, meaning that unlike previously, the Cabinet was chosen by Parliament rather than by the Governor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dunedin North (New Zealand electorate)</span> Former electorate in Otago, New Zealand

Dunedin North is a former New Zealand parliamentary electorate, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the New Zealand House of Representatives. It was established for the 1905 election and has existed since. It was last held by David Clark of the New Zealand Labour Party, who replaced the long-standing representative Pete Hodgson. It was considered a safe Labour seat, with Labour holding the seat for all but one term (1975–1978) since 1928. In the 2020 electoral boundary review, Otago Peninsula was added to the area to address a population quota shortfall; with this change the electorate was succeeded by the Dunedin electorate in the 2020 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dunedin South</span> Former electorate in Otago, New Zealand

Dunedin South is a former New Zealand parliamentary electorate. It first existed from 1881 to 1890, and subsequently from 1905 to 1946. In 1996, the electorate was re-established for the introduction of MMP, before being abolished in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waitaki (New Zealand electorate)</span> Electoral district in Otago and Canturbury, New Zealand

Waitaki is an electorate for the New Zealand House of Representatives that crosses the boundary of North Otago and South Canterbury towns on the East Coast of the South Island. The electorate was first established for the 1871 election that determined the 5th New Zealand Parliament. It has been abolished and re-established several times and in its early years was a two-member electorate for two parliamentary terms. The current electorate has existed since the 2008 election and is held by Jacqui Dean of the National Party.

Bruce was a rural parliamentary electorate in the Otago region of New Zealand, from 1861 to 1922. For part of the 1860s with the influx to Otago of gold-miners it was a multi-member constituency with two members.

Chalmers, originally Port Chalmers, was a parliamentary electorate in the Otago Region of New Zealand, from 1866 to 1938 with a break from 1896 to 1902. It was named after the town of Port Chalmers, the main port of Dunedin and Otago.

Caversham was a parliamentary electorate in the city of Dunedin in the Otago region of New Zealand, from 1866 to 1908.

Taieri is a parliamentary electorate in the Otago region of New Zealand, initially from 1866 to 1911, and was later recreated during the 2019/20 electoral redistribution ahead of the 2020 election.

Dunedin Country was a parliamentary electorate in the rural area surrounding the city of Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand, from 1853 to 1860. It was a two-member electorate and was represented by a total of five members of parliament.

The Gold Fields District electorate was a 19th-century parliamentary electorate in the Otago region, New Zealand. It was created in 1862, with the first elections in the following year, and it returned two members. It was one of eventually three special interest constituencies created to meet the needs of gold miners. All three of these electorates were abolished in 1870. A unique feature of the Gold Fields District was that it was superimposed over other electorates, and voting was open to those who had held a mining license for some time. As such, suffrage was more relaxed than elsewhere in New Zealand, as voting was otherwise tied to property ownership. Another feature unique to the gold mining electorates was that no electoral rolls were prepared, but voting could be done upon showing a complying miner's license.

City of Dunedin, during the first two parliaments called Town of Dunedin, was a parliamentary electorate in Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand. It was one of the original electorates created in 1853 and existed, with two breaks, until 1905. The first break, from 1862 to 1866, was caused by an influx of people through the Otago Gold Rush, when many new electorates were formed in Otago. The second break occurred from 1881 to 1890. It was the only New Zealand electorate that was created as a single-member, two-member and three member electorate.

Dunedin East was a parliamentary electorate in the city of Dunedin in the Otago region of New Zealand from 1881 to 1890.

Dunedin Suburbs is a former parliamentary electorate in the city of Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand from 1890 to 1893. The electorate was represented by one Member of Parliament, William Dawson, representing the Liberal Party.

Dunedin and Suburbs North was a parliamentary electorate in the city of Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand from 1863 to 1866. It was a multi-member electorate.

James Paterson was a 19th-century Member of Parliament in Otago, New Zealand. He was a cabinet minister, and on the Legislative Council.

Roslyn was a parliamentary electorate in the city of Dunedin in the Otago region of New Zealand from 1866 to 1890.

The third New Zealand Parliament was a term of the Parliament of New Zealand. Elections for this term were held between 12 December 1860 and 28 March 1861 in 43 electorates to elect 53 MPs. Two electorates were added to this during this term, Gold Fields District and a new Dunedin electorate created by splitting the existing City of Dunedin into Dunedin and Suburbs North and Dunedin and Suburbs South, increasing the number of MPs to 57. During the term of this Parliament, six Ministries were in power.

The 4th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the Parliament of New Zealand.

Richard Seaward Cantrell was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from Dunedin, New Zealand.

The Bruce by-election 1862 was a by-election held in the multi-member Bruce electorate during the 3rd New Zealand Parliament, on 31 July 1862. The by-election was caused by the death of incumbent MP Charles Kettle on 5 June, and was won by Edward Cargill.

References