Akaroa (New Zealand electorate)

Akaroa was a New Zealand electorate. It was located in Banks Peninsula, 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 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]

The 1866 election was contested by George Armstrong and Lancelot Walker, with Armstrong ahead by just four votes (3.08%).^[5]

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).^[6]

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.^[7]

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.^[8]

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

1890 election

1890 general election: Akaroa^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Joyce	750	48.99
	Conservative	Alexander McGregor	643	41.99
	Independent	William Barnett	138	9.02
Majority			107	6.98
Turnout			1,531	76.20
Registered electors			2,009

April 1874 by-election

April 1874 Akaroa by-election^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	William Montgomery	168	68.85
	Independent	Walter Pilliet	76	31.15
Turnout			244
Majority			92	37.70

1866 election

1866 general election: Akaroa^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	George Armstrong	67	51.54
	Independent	Lancelot Walker	63	48.46
Majority			4	3.08
Turnout			130
Registered electors

1853 election

1853 general election: Akaroa^[11]

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. Vol. IV, no. 168. 25 March 1854. p. 1. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
2. Papers Past National Library
3. "Akaroa-cum-Lyttelton". The Star. No. 7029. 6 December 1890. Retrieved 19 April 2010.
4. Scholefield 1950, p. 154.
5. "The Press". The Press. Vol. IX. 28 February 1866. p. 2. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
6. "The General Election, 1887". National Library. 1887. pp. 1–4. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
7. "The Official Declaration of the Poll". Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser. Vol. XIV, no. 1169. 30 September 1887. p. 2. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
8. "The Elections". Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser. Vol. XIX, no. 1503. 9 December 1890. p. 2. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
9. "The General Election, 1890". National Library. 1891. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
10. "General Assembly". The Star. No. 1912. 21 April 1874. Retrieved 9 April 2010.
11. "Christchurch". Lyttelton Times. Vol. III, no. 138. 27 August 1853. p. 7. Retrieved 15 June 2015.

References

• Scholefield, Guy (1950) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 (3rd ed.). Wellington: Govt. Printer.