The 30th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the New Zealand Parliament. It was elected at the 1951 general election on 1 September of that year.

1951 general election

The 1951 general election was held on Saturday, 1 September. A total of 80 MPs were elected; 49 represented

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

electorates, 27 represented

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

electorates, and the remaining four represented Māori electorates; this was the same distribution used since the . 1,205,762 voters were enrolled and the official turnout at the election was 89.1%.

Sessions

The 30th Parliament sat for five sessions (there were two sessions in 1954), and was prorogued on 4 October 1954.

Ministries

The National Party under

Sidney Holland Sir Sidney George Holland (18 October 1893 – 5 August 1961) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 25th prime minister of New Zealand from 13 December 1949 to 20 September 1957. He was instrumental in the creation and consolidation o ...

had been in power since the , and Holland remained in charge until 1957, when he stepped down due to ill health.

Overview of seats

The table below shows the number of MPs in each party following the 1951 election and at dissolution: Notes *The Working Government majority is calculated as all Government MPs less all other parties.

Initial composition of the 30th Parliament

The 1951 election saw the governing National Party re-elected with a twenty-seat margin, a substantial improvement on the twelve-seat margin it previously held. National won fifty seats compared with the Labour Party's thirty. The popular vote was closer, however, with National winning 54% to Labour's 46%. No seats were won by minor party candidates or by independents. This was the last New Zealand general election in which any party has ever captured a majority of the popular vote.

By-elections during 30th Parliament

There were a number of changes during the term of the 30th Parliament.

Notes

References

* * *{{cite book , last= Wilson , first= James Oakley , title= New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 , edition= 4th , orig-year=First published in 1913 , year= 1985 , publisher=V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer , location= Wellington , oclc= 154283103 30