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Country Quota
The country quota was a part of the New Zealand electoral system from 1881 until 1945, when it was abolished by the First Labour Government. Its effect was to make urbanUrban electorate were those that contained cities or boroughs of over 2000 people or were within five miles of the chief post offices in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, or Dunedin. electoral districts ( electorates) more populous than those in rural areas, thus making rural votes worth more in general elections. Background The quota was established to prevent, or at least slow, the marginalisation of rural interests as the New Zealand population became increasingly urbanised. There was a strong rural focus in New Zealand culture at the time. The device was also justified for ostensible practical reasons, such as that it was more difficult to cast a vote in isolated rural areas, making it easier for city people to exercise political influence. The quota was also a way to counteract the influence of recently enfr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area, covering . New Zealand is about east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1946 New Zealand General Election
The 1946 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament's 28th term. It saw the governing Labour Party re-elected, but by a substantially narrower margin than in the three previous elections. The National Party continued its gradual rise. Background The Labour Party had been in government since winning the 1935 elections, and had been re-elected twice. However, the National Party had managed to overcome the internal problems which had once troubled it, and now presented a credible threat to Labour. National's leader, Sidney Holland, was proving more effective than his predecessor, while the Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, was weary and in poor health. The after-effects of World War II, including ongoing shortages, were affecting the government's popularity. The next New Zealand census was scheduled for 1946, but having had to postpone the 1941 census due to WWII, the government brought it forward. The 1945 census was h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Evening Post (New Zealand)
''The Evening Post'' (8 February 1865 – 6 July 2002) was an afternoon metropolitan daily newspaper based in Wellington, New Zealand. It was founded in 1865 by Dublin-born printer, newspaper manager and leader-writer Henry Blundell, who brought his large family to New Zealand in 1863. With his partner from what proved to be a false-start at Havelock, David Curle, who left the partnership that July, Henry and his three sons printed with a hand-operated press and distributed Wellington's first daily newspaper, ''The Evening Post'', on 8 February 1865. Operating from 1894 as Blundell Bros Limited, his sons and their descendants continued the very successful business which dominated its circulation area. While ''The Evening Post'' was remarkable in not suffering the rapid circulation decline of evening newspapers elsewhere it was decided in 1972 to merge ownership with that of the never-as-successful politically conservative morning paper, '' The Dominion'', which belonged to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malapportionment
Apportionment is the process by which seats in a legislative body are distributed among administrative divisions, such as states or parties, entitled to representation. This page presents the general principles and issues related to apportionment. The page Apportionment by country describes specific practices used around the world. The page Mathematics of apportionment describes mathematical formulations and properties of apportionment rules. The simplest and most universal principle is that elections should give each voter's intentions equal weight. This is both intuitive and stated in laws such as the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (the Equal Protection Clause). However, there are a variety of historical and technical reasons why this principle is not followed absolutely or, in some cases, as a first priority. Common problems Fundamentally, the representation of a population in the thousands or millions by a reasonable size, thus accountable governing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Parliament
The New Zealand Parliament ( mi, Pāremata Aotearoa) is the unicameral legislature of New Zealand, consisting of the King of New Zealand ( King-in-Parliament) and the New Zealand House of Representatives. The King is usually represented by his governor-general. Before 1951, there was an upper chamber, the New Zealand Legislative Council. The New Zealand Parliament was established in 1854 and is one of the oldest continuously functioning legislatures in the world. It has met in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, since 1865. The House of Representatives normally consists of 120 members of Parliament (MPs), though sometimes more due to overhang seats. There are 72 MPs elected directly in electorates while the remainder of seats are assigned to list MPs based on each party's share of the total party vote. Māori were represented in Parliament from 1867, and in 1893 women gained the vote. Although elections can be called early, each three years Parliament is dissolved and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electoral System Of New Zealand
The New Zealand electoral system has been mixed-member proportional (MMP) since the 1996 election. MMP was introduced following a referendum in 1993. It replaced the first-past-the-post (FPP) system New Zealand had previously used for most of its history. New Zealanders elect their members of parliament (MPs) with two votes. The first vote is for a candidate from an electorate (electoral district). The second vote is used to elect ranked party lists. New Zealand has a single-house legislature, the House of Representatives, usually with 120 members, although the number can increase because of (generally) one or two overhang seats, depending on the outcome of the electoral process. The 53rd Parliament, elected in 2020, has 120 seats: 72 were filled by electorate MPs, with the remaining 48 filled by list MPs according to each party's share of the vote. New elections are held for the New Zealand Parliament every three years. In 1893, New Zealand was the first country in the wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Liberal Party
The New Zealand Liberal Party was the first organised political party in New Zealand. It governed from 1891 until 1912. The Liberal strategy was to create a large class of small land-owning farmers who supported Liberal ideals, by buying large tracts of Māori land and selling it to small farmers on credit. The Liberal Government also established the basis of the later welfare state, with old age pensions, developed a system for settling industrial disputes, which was accepted by both employers and trade unions. In 1893 it extended voting rights to women, making New Zealand the first country in the world to enact universal adult suffrage. New Zealand gained international attention for the Liberal reforms, especially how the state regulated labour relations. It was innovating in the areas of maximum hour regulations and compulsory arbitration procedures. Under the Liberal administration the country also became the first to implement a minimum wage and to give women the right ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Massey
William Ferguson Massey (26 March 1856 – 10 May 1925), commonly known as Bill Massey, was a politician who served as the 19th prime minister of New Zealand from May 1912 to May 1925. He was the founding leader of the Reform Party, New Zealand's second organised political party, from 1909 until his death. Massey was born in County Londonderry in Ireland (now Northern Ireland). After migrating to New Zealand in 1870, Massey farmed near Auckland (earning his later nickname, ''Farmer Bill'') and assumed leadership in farmers' organisations. He entered parliament in 1894 as a conservative, and from 1894 to 1912 was a leader of the conservative opposition to the Liberal ministries of Richard Seddon and Joseph Ward. Massey became the first Reform Party Prime Minister after he led a successful motion of no confidence against the Liberal government. Throughout his political career Massey was known for the particular support he showed for agrarian interests, as well as his oppositi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Reform Party
The Reform Party, formally the New Zealand Political Reform League, was New Zealand's second major political party, having been founded as a conservative response to the original Liberal Party. It was in government between 1912 and 1928, and later formed a coalition with the United Party (a remnant of the Liberals), and then merged with United to form the modern National Party. Foundation The Liberal Party, founded by John Ballance and fortified by Richard Seddon, was highly dominant in New Zealand politics at the beginning of the 20th century. The conservative opposition, consisting only of independents, was disorganised and demoralised. It had no cohesive plan to counter the Liberal Party's dominance, and could not always agree on a single leader — it was described by one historian as resembling a disparate band of guerrillas, and presented no credible threat to continued Liberal Party rule. Gradually, however, the Liberals began to falter — the first blow came with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Chapman (academic)
Robert McDonald Chapman (30 October 1922 – 26 May 2004) was a New Zealand political scientist and historian. Early life Born in Takapuna, Auckland, on 30 October 1922, Chapman was educated at Auckland Grammar School. He later studied at Auckland Teachers' Training College and Auckland University College, where he received scholarships, and graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1947, and Master of Arts with first-class honours in 1949. For his Master's research project in history, he analysed the 1928 New Zealand general election. In 1948, Chapman married Noeline Amy Thompson, a teacher, and the couple went on to have three children. Career Chapman was first appointed to the History Department at the University of Auckland in 1948. He was interested in "New Zealand history as an expression of the nation's social development." According to ''The New Zealand Herald'' obituary of Chapman: "He was one of a pioneer group of teachers at the university—among them historian Sir Keith S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1914 New Zealand General Election
The 1914 New Zealand general election was held on 10 December to elect a total of 80 MPs to the 19th session of the New Zealand Parliament. The Maori vote was held on 11 December. A total number of 616,043 voters were registered, of which 84.7% voters turned out to vote. The election saw William Massey's Reform Government maintain power. The second-ballot voting system had been repealed in 1913, and first-past-the-post voting reinstated for the 1914 election. Soldiers serving overseas in the NZEF were given a vote by the Expeditionary Forces Voting Act, 1914. They voted for a party (Liberal, Labour or Reform) and their votes were allocated to a candidate for their electorate by a representative of their party; which sometimes required the representative to choose between rival "Liberal" or "Labour" candidates. Summary of results Party totals *Auckland West, Hawke's Bay, Taumarunui, Wairarapa, Waitaki and Wellington Central were won by the Liberals from Reform *Chalmers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
