Dunedin West

Dunedin West was a New Zealand parliamentary electorate, in the city of Dunedin. It existed for three periods between 1881 and 1996 and was represented by seven Members of Parliament.

Population centres

The previous electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1875 for the 1875–1876 election. In the six years since, New Zealand's European population had increased by 65%. In the 1881 electoral redistribution, the House of Representatives increased the number of European representatives to 91 (up from 84 since the 1875–76 election). The number of Māori electorates was held at four. The House further decided that electorates should not have more than one representative, which led to 35 new electorates being formed, including Dunedin West, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries.^[1]

The 1981 census had shown that the North Island had experienced further population growth, and three additional general seats were created through the 1983 electoral redistribution, bringing the total number of electorates to 95.^[2] The South Island had, for the first time, experienced a population loss, but its number of general electorates was fixed at 25 since the 1967 electoral redistribution.^[3] More of the South Island population was moving to Christchurch, and two electorates were abolished, while two electorates were recreated (including Dunedin West). In the North Island, six electorates were newly created, three electorates were recreated, and six electorates were abolished.^[4]

The electorate was urban, and comprised a number of suburbs in the west of Dunedin.

History

The electorate existed in the 19th century from 1881 to 1890. It was represented by:^[5]

• Thomas Dick 1881–84 (defeated)
• William Downie Stewart 1884–90 (retired)

The electorate was recreated, from 1908 to 1946.^[5] Stewart's son, also called William Downie Stewart, represented the electorate for the Reform Party from 1914 to 1935, when he was defeated by Labour's Gervan McMillan.^[6]

In 1984 the electorate was recreated again,^[5] until the introduction of MMP in 1996. Clive Matthewson represented the electorate from 1984 to 1996. He left the New Zealand Labour Party in 1995, and was one of the founders of the United New Zealand party.

Members of Parliament

Dunedin West was represented by seven Members of Parliament.

Key

  Independent   Liberal   Reform   Labour   United NZ

Election	Winner
1881 election		Thomas Dick
1884 election		William Downie Stewart
1887 election
(Electorate abolished 1890–1908, see Dunedin)
1908 election		John A. Millar
1911 election
1914 election		William Downie Stewart Jr
1919 election
1922 election
1925 election
1928 election
1931 election
1935 election		Gervan McMillan
1938 election
1943 election		Phil Connolly
(Electorate abolished 1946–1984)
1984 election		Clive Matthewson
1987 election
1990 election
1993 election
(Electorate abolished in 1996; see Dunedin South)

Election results

1993 election

1993 general election: Dunedin West^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Clive Matthewson	9,924	47.55	−1.21
	National	Ollie Turner	5,447	26.10
	Alliance	Norman Wood	4,076	19.53
	NZ First	Khalid Ibadulla	923	4.42
	Christian Heritage	John Streekstra	434	2.07
	Natural Law	Martin Jelley	63	0.30
Majority			4,477	21.45	+12.76
Turnout			20,867	85.14	−0.28
Registered electors			24,508

1990 election

1990 general election: Dunedin West^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Clive Matthewson	9,971	48.76	−9.95
	National	Ian McMeeking	8,192	40.06	+3.40
	Green	Robyn McCurdy	1,098	5.36
	NewLabour	Frank Rudkin	880	4.30
	Social Credit	Sheryl Tomilson	226	1.10
	Democrats	John Begley	82	0.40
Majority			1,779	8.69	−13.35
Turnout			20,449	84.86	−3.17
Registered electors			24,097

1987 election

1987 general election: Dunedin West^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Clive Matthewson	12,108	58.71	+9.21
	National	Ian McMeeking	7,561	36.66
	Democrats	M J Mellon	812	3.93
	Wizard Party	G B Campbell	142	0.68
Majority			4,547	22.04	−5.43
Turnout			20,623	88.03	−4.60
Registered electors			23,426

1984 election

1984 general election: Dunedin West^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Clive Matthewson	10,832	49.50
	National	Derek Russell	4,821	22.03
	Independent Labour	Brian MacDonell	3,638	16.62
	NZ Party	Richard Freeman	1,840	8.40
	Social Credit	David Guise	749	3.42
Majority			6,011	27.47
Turnout			21,880	92.63
Registered electors			23,619

1943 election

1943 general election: Dunedin West^[10][11][12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Phil Connolly	7,430	54.56
	National	Alexander Smith Falconer	6,092	44.73
Majority			1,338	9.82
Turnout			13,618	88.90	−3.64
Registered electors			15,318

1938 election

1938 general election: Dunedin West^[13]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gervan McMillan	8,452	58.96	+5.87
	National	Stuart Sidey	5,813	40.55
Informal votes			69	0.48	+0.09
Majority			2,369	16.52	+10.34
Turnout			14,334	92.54	+1.40
Registered electors			15,488

1935 election

1935 general election: Dunedin West^[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gervan McMillan	5,886	53.09
	Reform	William Downie Stewart Jr	5,200	46.90	−4.83
Informal votes			44	0.39	−0.59
Majority			686	6.18
Turnout			11,086	91.14	+6.22
Registered electors			12,163

1931 election

1931 general election: Dunedin West^[15][16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Reform	William Downie Stewart Jr	5,016	51.73
	Labour	John Gilchrist[17]	4,092	42.20
	Independent Liberal	John McDonald[18]	588	6.06
Informal votes			96	0.98
Majority			924	9.53
Turnout			9,792	84.92
Registered electors			11,531

1928 election

1928 general election: Dunedin West^[19]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Reform	William Downie Stewart Jr	4,600	44.22
	United	Cornelius Machin Moss	3,323	31.94
	Labour	Ralph Harrison	2,480	23.84
Majority			1,277	12.28
Informal votes			113	1.07
Turnout			10,516	87.18
Registered electors			12,062

Notes

1. McRobie 1989, pp. 43–48.
2. McRobie 1989, pp. 123f.
3. McRobie 1989, pp. 111, 123.
4. McRobie 1989, pp. 119–124.
5. Wilson 1985, p. 262.
6. Wilson 1985, pp. 217, 237.
7. Part 1: Votes recorded at each polling place (Technical report). New Zealand Chief Electoral Office. 1993. p. 18.
8. Part 1: Votes recorded at each polling place (Technical report). New Zealand Chief Electoral Office. 1990. p. 26.
9. Norton 1988, pp. 216.
10. "The General Election, 1943". National Library. 1944. p. 11. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
11. "Results from all Electorates". Evening Post. Vol. CXXXVI, no. 76. 27 September 1943. p. 6. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
12. "City Nominations". Evening Post. Vol. CXXXVI, no. 61. 9 September 1943. p. 9. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
13. "The General Election, 1938". National Library. 1939. pp. 1–6. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
14. The New Zealand Official Year-Book. Government Printer. 1936. Archived from the original on 1 May 2012. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
15. The General Election, 1931. Government Printer. 1932. p. 2. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
16. "Prospects in Otago". The New Zealand Herald. Vol. LXVIII, no. 21037. 23 November 1931. p. 11. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
17. "Points from Letters". The Evening Post. Vol. CXVIII, no. 70. 20 September 1934. p. 10. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
18. "Election notices". Otago Daily Times. No. 21498. 21 November 1931. p. 15. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
19. Skinner, W. A. G. (1929). The General Election, 1928. Government Printer. p. 2. Retrieved 18 February 2020.

References

• McRobie, Alan (1989). Electoral Atlas of New Zealand. Wellington: GP Books. ISBN 0-477-01384-8.
• Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
• Norton, Clifford (1988). New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946–1987: Occasional Publications No 1, Department of Political Science. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington. ISBN 0-475-11200-8.