The 1931 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the

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 h ...

's 24th term. It resulted in the newly formed coalition between the United Party and the Reform Party remaining in office as the United–Reform Coalition Government, although the opposition Labour Party made some minor gains despite tallying more votes than any other single party.

Background

In the 1928 election, the Reform Party won 28 seats to the United Party's 27 seats. Shortly after the election the Reform Party lost a vote of no-confidence and the United Party managed to form a government, the United Government, with the support of the Labour Party, with governing Reform Party going into the opposition. In 1931, however, the agreement between United and Labour collapsed due to differing opinions on how to counter the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. The Reform Party, fearing that the Depression would give Labour a substantial boost, reluctantly agreed to form a coalition with United to avert elections. By forming a coalition, United and Reform were able to blunt Labour's advantage, ending the possibility of the anti-Labour vote being split.

The election

The date for the main 1931 elections was 2 December, a Wednesday. Elections to the four

Māori electorates In New Zealand politics, Māori electorates, colloquially known as the Māori seats, are a special category of electorate that give reserved positions to representatives of Māori in the New Zealand Parliament. Every area in New Zealand is ...

were held the day before. 874,787 people were registered to vote, and there was a turnout of 83.3%. This turnout was below average for the time period. The number of seats was 80, a number which had been fixed since 1902. However, in four electorates (

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runawa ...

, Oroua,

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, ) there was only one candidate.

Results

The 1931 election saw the recently formed governing coalition retain office as the

United–Reform Coalition The United–Reform Coalition, also known as the National Political Federation from 1935, was a coalition between two of the three major parties of New Zealand, the United and Reform parties, from 1931 to 1936. The Coalition formed the Governmen ...

, winning fifty-one seats, including four independents. This was a drop of four seats from what the two parties had won in the previous elections, but was still considerably better than many had expected given the economic situation. The Labour Party won twenty-four seats, a gain of five. In the popular vote (including pro-coalition independents), the coalition won 54.0% of the vote, down from the 66.1% that the two parties had won previously. Labour won 34.3%. The only other party to gain a place in Parliament was the Country Party, which won a single seat. Four other independents were elected. Four candidates were elected unopposed:

Walter Broadfoot Sir Walter James Broadfoot (6 April 1881 – 10 September 1965) was a New Zealand politician of the United Party, and from 1936, the National Party. He was a cabinet minister from 1949 to 1954 in the First National Government. Biography Ea ...

in ,

John Cobbe John George Cobbe (1859 – 29 December 1944) was a New Zealand politician of the Liberal Party, United Party and the National Party. Early life Cobbe was born in King's County, Ireland, in 1859. He received his education in Tullamore and D ...

in ,

Alfred Ransom Sir Ethelbert Alfred Ransom (19 March 1868 – 22 May 1943) was a New Zealand politician of the Liberal Party, then its successor the United Party, and from 1936, the National Party. He was a cabinet minister from 1928 to 1935 in the United ...

in , and

Kenneth Williams Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was an English actor of Welsh heritage. He was best known for his comedy roles and in later life as a raconteur and diarist. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the 31 Car ...

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Party totals

1931 New Zealand general election - Simple

Votes summary

The following table shows the detailed results: Key , - , colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" , General electorates , - , - ,

Hauraki Hauraki is a suburb located on the southern North Shore of Auckland, the largest metropolitan city in New Zealand. It is under the local governance of the Auckland Council. History The traditional name for the western coastline in Hauraki wa ...

, style="background-color:;" , , colspan=3 style="text-align:center;background-color:;" , Walter William Massey , style="text-align:right;" , 2,750 , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:center;" ,

Charles Robert Petrie Charles Robert Petrie (1882 – 6 October 1958) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. Biography Petrie was born in Glasgow, Scotland and arrived in New Zealand in 1911. He was an active Presbyterian. A shopkeeper in Otahuh ...

, - , - , colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" ,

, - Table footnotes: * Four of the eight independent MPs (Connolly, Hargest, McSkimming, and Polson) were aligned with the United–Reform Coalition, and are not classified as independents by some sources.

Notes

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:1931 New Zealand general election