City of Auckland (New Zealand electorate)

Not to be confused with the current Auckland Central (New Zealand electorate) originally created in 1887.

City of Auckland was a New Zealand electorate formed for the election of 1853. It existed from 1853 to 1860, and from 1890 to 1905.

Population centres

The City of Auckland electorate was one of the original electorates, and was used in the country's first election. 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 election, it was divided into Auckland East and Auckland West.^[1]

At the 1890 election, 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 election, the seat absorbed most of Newton electorate, but lost some of its southern territories to the remnants of Parnell. In 1902 election, Grey Lynn was split away into its own electorate. In the 1905 election, 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   Conservative

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 to 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

1902 election

1902 general election: Auckland^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Joseph Witheford	7,854	58.73
	Liberal	Frederick Baume	7,540	56.38
	Liberal	Alfred Kidd	5,786	43.26
	Conservative	William Richardson	4,852	36.28
	Liberal	William Joseph Napier	4,271	31.93	−15.36
	Labour	Arthur Rosser	3,504	26.20	−1.03
	Independent Liberal	Robert French	3,055	22.84	+12.24
	Independent	John Henry Hannan	2,016	15.07
	Labour	John Fawcus	966	7.22
	Conservative	Albert Penn Bradly	217	1.62
	Independent	H N Simson	58	0.43
Majority			934	6.98
Turnout			13,373	66.94	−3.37
Registered electors			19,976

1900 by-election

City of Auckland by-election, 1900^[6][7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Joseph Witheford	4,927	44.79
	Conservative	Richard Hobbs	2,823	25.66	−10.39
	Liberal	James Job Holland	2,236	20.32	−15.80
	Conservative	William Richardson	991	9.00
	Labour	Leonard William Snellar Small	23	0.20
Majority			2,104	19.12
Turnout			11,000

1899 election

1899 general election: Auckland^[8][9][10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Joseph Napier	6,097	47.29
	Conservative	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
	Conservative	Richard Hobbs	4,647	36.05
	Liberal	Frederick Baume	3,792	29.41
	Liberal–Labour	Arthur Rosser	3,511	27.23	−10.87
	Conservative	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
Turnout			12,892	70.31	+9.56
Registered electors			18,336

1896 election

1896 general election: Auckland^[11]

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

1895 by-election

1895 City of Auckland by-election^[13]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Thompson	5,528	60.99
	Conservative	Richard Monk	3,535	39.01
Majority			1,993	21.99
Turnout			9,063

1893 election

1893 general election: City of Auckland^[14][15]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	George Grey	6,379	62.57
	Liberal	William Crowther	4,584	44.96
	Conservative	Charles Button	4,214	41.34
	Conservative	Thomas Tudehope[16]	4,146	40.67
	Liberal	Thomas Thompson	3,950	38.75	−20.23
	Liberal	William Joseph Napier	3,531	34.64	−7.18
	Independent Liberal	Edward Withy[16]	2,393	23.47
	Liberal	John Shera	793	7.78	−55.85
	Liberal	Samuel Vaile[16]	502	4.92
	Liberal	Thomas Fernandez	92	0.90
Majority			68	0.67
Turnout			10,195	60.73	+14.30
Registered electors			16,788

1893 by-election

1893 City of Auckland by-election^[17]

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

1890 election

1890 general election: City of Auckland^[2][18]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Shera	2,006	63.63
	Liberal	Thomas Thompson	1,860	58.98
	Liberal	William Lee Rees	1,761	55.86
	Independent	Adam Porter	1,501	47.61
	Liberal	William Joseph Napier	1,319	41.82
	Conservative	James Wallis	748	23.70
	Independent	H W Farnall	262	8.31
Majority			505	15.99
Turnout			9,457	46.43
Registered electors			6,788

1853 election

1853 general election: Auckland^[19]

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. Vol. XXI, no. 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
5. "New Zealand General Election, 1902 – Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1903 Session I, H-26". Retrieved 15 May 2013.
6. "Auckland By-Election". Manawatu Standard. Vol. XXXVIII, no. 6683. 28 April 1900. p. 3. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
7. "The Auckland Election". Poverty Bay Herald. Vol. XXVII, no. 8820. 28 April 1900. p. 2. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
8. "The General Election, 1899". Wellington: Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives. 19 June 1900. p. 1. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
9. "City of Auckland Electorate". Observer. Vol. XVIII, no. 1092. 2 December 1899. p. 17. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
10. "Auckland City". Observer. Vol. XVIII, no. 1093. 9 December 1899. p. 3. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
11. "The General Election". Auckland Star. Vol. XXVII, no. 305. 23 December 1896. p. 6. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
12. Husbands, Paul. "Rosser, Arthur". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
13. "Decisive Victory for Mr Thompson". Fielding Star. Vol. XVII, no. 22. 25 July 1895. p. 2. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
14. The General Election, 1893. Government Printer. 1894. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
15. "The General Election". Otago Daily Times. 28 November 1893. p. 6. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
16. "Electorate City of Auckland". Auckland Star. Vol. XXIV, no. 274. 18 November 1893. p. 8. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
17. "Auckland Election". Hawera & Normanby Star. Vol. XXVI, no. 2497. 5 August 1893. p. 2. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
18. "Parliamentary candidates". The Press. Vol. XLVIL, no. 7722. 29 November 1890. p. 5. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
19. "Representative Assembly". Daily Southern Cross. Vol. X, no. 639. 12 August 1853. p. 3. Retrieved 15 June 2015.