Christchurch West was a parliamentary

electorate Electorate may refer to: * The people who are eligible to vote in an election, especially their number e.g. the term ''size of (the) electorate'' * The dominion of a Prince-elector in the Holy Roman Empire until 1806 * An electoral district An ...

in the city of

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, New Zealand from 1871 for the 5th Parliament, and it existed until 1875.

Population centres

The 1870 electoral redistribution was undertaken by a

parliamentary select committee A select committee is a committee made up of a small number of parliamentary members appointed to deal with particular areas or issues originating in the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Select committees exist in the British Parliam ...

based on population data from the 1867 New Zealand census. Eight sub-committees were formed, with two members each making decisions for their own

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

; thus members set their own electorate boundaries. The number of electorates was increased from 61 to 72, and Christchurch West and were two of the new electorates. These electorates were concentrated on the central city and inner suburbs, and

Colombo Street Colombo Street is a main road of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It runs south-north through the centre of Christchurch with a break at Cathedral Square. As with many other central Christchurch streets, it is named for a colonial Anglica ...

formed much of the boundary between them. Both of these electorates were abolished after one parliamentary term in the 1875 electoral redistribution, and replaced by the three-member electorate.

History

The electorate was created for the 1871 general election, and it was contested by

Edward Richardson Edward Richardson (7 November 1831 – 26 February 1915) was a New Zealand civil and mechanical engineer, and Member of Parliament. Born in England, he emigrated to Australia and continued there as a railway engineer. Having become a partner ...

and

Henry Wynn-Williams William Henry Wynn-Williams (1828 – 27 October 1913) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from Canterbury, New Zealand. He was a prominent lawyer in Christchurch. Early life Wynn-Williams was born in August 1828 in Llangar, Conwy County Bo ...

. The nomination meeting was held on 12 January, and the show of hands was 50 to 30 in favour of Wynn-Williams. Richardson demanded a poll, which was scheduled for 19 January. On polling day, Richardson and Wynn-Williams obtaining 234 and 214 votes, respectively. Richardson was thus declared elected. The electorate was abolished at the end of the 5th Parliament in 1875. It was held by Richardson until the dissolution of Parliament in December.

Member of Parliament

The electorate was represented by one

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Notes

References

* * {{Historic electorates of New Zealand , state=collapsed 1870 establishments in New Zealand 1875 disestablishments in New Zealand Historical electorates of New Zealand Politics of Christchurch History of Christchurch