Wellington Suburbs and Country is a former parliamentary electorate in Wellington, New Zealand, from 1911 to 1919. The electorate was combined from Wellington Suburbs and Wellington Country electorates.

Population centres

In the 1911 electoral redistribution, the North Island gained a further seat from the South Island due to faster population growth. In addition, there were substantial population movements within each island, and significant changes resulted from this. Only four electorates were unaltered, five electorates were abolished, one former electorate was re-established, and four electorates, including Wellington Suburbs and Country, were created for the first time.[1]

Through the 1911 electoral redistribution, the Wellington North and Wellington East electorates gained small but relatively populous areas from the Wellington Suburbs electorate, which was abolished. The vast majority of the latter's area went to the new Wellington Suburbs and Country, but large areas were also gained from the Otaki and Hutt electorates. Settlements that had been covered by the Wellington Suburbs electorate include Miramar Peninsula, Mākara, Mākara Beach, Johnsonville, Ohariu Valley, and Tawa. All these were also included in the Wellington Suburbs and Country electorate, and settlements that were gained included Haywards (from the Hutt electorate), and Judgeford, Pāuatahanui, Titahi Bay, and Pukerua Bay (all from the Otaki electorate).[1]

The Wellington Suburbs electorate had gone "dry" in 1909 after the 1908 election, so the new electorate was also "dry". This and the transfer to an electorate with which they had "no community of interest whatever" led to objections to the transfer from the Pāuatahanui area to their former Otaki MP William Field ("a man interested in farming") and to the Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward, to no avail. The area had five hotels serving the Cobb & Co coaches which went north through the settlement, and their bars were closed.[2]

In the 1918 electoral redistribution, the Wellington Suburbs and Country electorate was abolished again, and its area split between the Wellington Suburbs and the Otaki electorates.[3] These changes became effective with the 1919 election.[4]

History

The Wellington Suburbs and Country electorate was represented by two Members of Parliament.[5]

Members of Parliament

Key

  Reform

Election Winner
1911 election William Henry Dillon Bell[6]
1914 election Robert Wright[7]
(Abolished 1919; see Wellington Suburbs and Otaki)

Election results

1914 election

1914 general election: Wellington Suburbs and Country[8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Reform Robert Wright 3,258 50.62
United Labour Frank Moore 2,256 35.05 -11.30
Liberal John Edward Fitzgerald 922 14.32 -5.89
Informal votes 58 0.90 +0.56
Majority 1,002 15.56
Turnout 6,436 81.90 +4.66
Registered electors 7,858

1911 election

1911 general election: Wellington Suburbs and Country, first ballot[9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Reform William Henry Dillon Bell 2,431 40.48
Labour Frank Moore 1,273 21.19
Independent Liberal John Edward Fitzgerald 1,214 20.21
Liberal John Luke 1,032 17.18
Informal votes 55 0.91
Turnout 6,005 80.79
Second ballot result
Reform William Henry Dillon Bell 3,060 53.30 +12.82
Labour Frank Moore 2,661 46.35 +25.16
Informal votes 20 0.34 -0.57
Majority 399 6.95
Turnout 5,741 77.24 -3.55
Registered electors 7,432

Notes

  1. 1 2 McRobie 1989, pp. 71–76.
  2. ↑ Reilly 2013, p. 86-87.
  3. ↑ McRobie 1989, pp. 74–79.
  4. ↑ McRobie 1989, p. 79.
  5. ↑ Wilson 1985, p. 276.
  6. ↑ Wilson 1985, p. 183.
  7. ↑ Wilson 1985, p. 247.
  8. ↑ Hislop, J. (1915). The General Election, 1914. National Library. pp. 1–33. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
  9. ↑ "The General Election, 1911". National Library. 1912. pp. 1–14. Retrieved 1 August 2013.

References

  • McRobie, Alan (1989). Electoral Atlas of New Zealand. Wellington: GP Books. ISBN 0-477-01384-8.
  • Mansfield, F. W. (1912). The General Election, 1911. National Library. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  • Reilly, Helen (2013). Pauatahanui: A local history. Wellington: Pauatahanui Residents Association. ISBN 978-0-473-25439-1.
  • Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
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