Mount Victoria (New Zealand electorate)

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Mount Victoria is a former New Zealand electorate, centred on the inner-city suburb of Mount Victoria in the southern suburbs of Wellington. It existed from 1946 to 1954, and was represented by one Member of Parliament, Jack Marshall.

Contents

Population centres

The 1941 New Zealand census had been postponed due to World War II, so the 1946 electoral redistribution had to take ten years of population growth and movements into account. The North Island gained a further two electorates from the South Island due to faster population growth. The abolition of the country quota through the Electoral Amendment Act, 1945 reduced the number and increased the size of rural electorates. None of the existing electorates remained unchanged, 27 electorates were abolished, eight former electorates were re-established, and 19 electorates were created for the first time, including Mount Victoria. [1]

The First Labour Government was defeated in the 1949 election and the incoming National Government changed the Electoral Act, with the electoral quota once again based on total population as opposed to qualified electors, and the tolerance was increased to 7.5% of the electoral quota. There was no adjustment in the number of electorates between the South and North Islands, but the law changes resulted in boundary adjustments to almost every electorate through the 1952 electoral redistribution; only five electorates were unaltered. [2] Five electorates were reconstituted and one was newly created, and a corresponding six electorates were abolished (including Mount Victoria); all of these in the North Island. [3] These changes took effect with the 1954 election. [4]

History

After the war, Jack Marshall briefly established himself as a barrister, but was soon persuaded to stand as the National Party's candidate for the new Wellington electorate of Mount Victoria in the 1946 election. The electorate was marginal, but he won it by 911 votes. He was, however, nearly disqualified by a technicality – Marshall was employed at the time in a legal case for the government, something which ran afoul of rules barring politicians from giving business to their own firms. However, because Marshall had taken on the case before his election (and so could not have influenced the government's decision to give him employment), it was obvious that there had been no wrongdoing. As such, the Prime Minister, Peter Fraser of the Labour Party, amended the regulations. [5]

Marshall held the electorate for the three terms of its existence. [6] Through the 1954 election, he transferred to the Karori electorate. [7]

Jack Marshall became Prime Minister in the Second National Government in 1972, after Keith Holyoake retired. He was defeated by Norman Kirk in the 1972 election, and was replaced as leader of the National Party by Robert Muldoon in 1974. [5]

Members of Parliament

The Mount Victoria electorate was represented by one Member of Parliament. [8]

Key

  National   

ElectionWinner
1946 election Jack Marshall
1949 election
1951 election
(Electorate abolished 1954;
see Wellington Central and Miramar)

Election results

1951 election

1951 general election: Mount Victoria [9]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
National Jack Marshall 6,556 60.06 +1.62
Labour Frank Kitts 4,35839.94
Majority2,19820.12+4.02
Turnout 10,91484.36-3.09
Registered electors 12,936

1949 election

1949 general election: Mount Victoria [10]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
National Jack Marshall 6,562 58.44 +5.35
Labour Nathan Richard Seddon4,57240.71
Independent Julius Hyde940.83
Majority1,80816.10+8.69
Turnout 11,22887.45+0.99
Registered electors 12,839

1946 election

1946 general election: Mount Victoria [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
National Jack Marshall 6,520 53.09
Labour Eugene Casey5,60945.67
Independent Liberal John Hart Parry1521.23
Majority9117.41
Turnout 12,28188.44
Registered electors 13,885

Notes

  1. ↑ McRobie 1989, pp. 91–96.
  2. ↑ McRobie 1989, pp. 99f.
  3. ↑ McRobie 1989, pp. 95–100.
  4. ↑ McRobie 1989, p. 99.
  5. 1 2 Gustafson, Barry. "Marshall, John Ross". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Ministry for Culture and Heritage . Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  6. ↑ Wilson 1985, pp. 218, 267.
  7. ↑ Wilson 1985, p. 218.
  8. ↑ Wilson 1985, p. 267.
  9. ↑ Norton 1988, p. 282.
  10. ↑ "The General Election, 1949". National Library. 1950. pp. 1–5, 8. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  11. ↑ "The General Election, 1946". National Library. 1947. pp. 1–11, 14. Retrieved 1 January 2014.

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