The 31st New Zealand Parliament was a term 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 ...
. It was elected at the
1954 general election on 13 November of that year.
1954 general election
The 1954 general election was held on Saturday, 13 November.
A total of 80
MPs were elected; 50 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, 26 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
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 ...
; this was a gain of one electorate for the North Island from the South Island since the . 1,209,670 voters were enrolled and the official turnout at the election was 91.4%.
Sessions
The 31st Parliament sat for three sessions, and was prorogued on 25 October 1957.
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 in September 1957 some two months prior to the . Holland was succeeded by
Keith Holyoake
Sir Keith Jacka Holyoake, (; 11 February 1904 – 8 December 1983) was the 26th prime minister of New Zealand, serving for a brief period in 1957 and then from 1960 to 1972, and also the 13th governor-general of New Zealand, serving from 1977 ...
, but the
Labour Party narrowly defeated National at the 1957 election, and the government changed in mid-December of that year.
Overview of seats
The table below shows the number of MPs in each party following the 1954 election and at dissolution:
Notes
*The Working Government majority is calculated as all Government MPs less all other parties.
Initial composition of the 31st Parliament
By-elections during 31st Parliament
There were a number of changes during the term of the 31st Parliament.
Notes
References
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*
*{{cite book , last= Wilson , first= James Oakley , title= New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 , edition= 4th , orig-year= First ed. published 1913 , year= 1985 , publisher= V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer , location= Wellington , oclc=154283103
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