Dunedin Central 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
The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, ...
in the city of
Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...
in
Otago, New Zealand from 1881 to 1890 and 1905 to 1984.
Population centres
The previous electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1875 for the
1875–1876 election. In the six years since, New Zealand's European population had increased by 65%. In the 1881 electoral redistribution, the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
increased the number of European representatives to 91 (up from 84 since the 1875–1876 election). The number of Māori electorates was held at four. The House further decided that electorates should not have more than one representative, which led to 35 new electorates being formed, including Dunedin Central, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries.
History
Thomas Bracken
Thomas Bracken (c. December 1843 – 16 February 1898) was an Irish-born New Zealand poet, journalist and politician.
He wrote "God Defend New Zealand", one of the two national anthems of New Zealand, and was the first person to publish the ph ...
, who at the had unsuccessfully contested the electorate, was the first representative. At the , Bracken was defeated by
James Benn Bradshaw
James Benn Bradshaigh Bradshaw (22 September 1832 – 1 September 1886) was a 19th-century member of parliament in the Otago region of New Zealand. He also played cricket.
Private life
He was born in Barton Blount, South Derbyshire, England, t ...
, but Bradshaw died during the term (on 1 September 1886) and Bracken won the resulting by-election. He served for the rest of the term and then retired.
The was contested by
Edward Cargill
Edward Bowes Cargill (9 October 1823 – 9 August 1903) was a 19th-century businessman and Member of Parliament in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. He was the Mayor of Dunedin from 1897 to 1898.
Early life
Cargill was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, ...
and
Frederick Fitchett
Frederick Fitchett (1851 – 5 October 1930) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from Dunedin, New Zealand.
Biography
Born in 1851 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England, Fitchett was educated at the University of Melbourne and Canterbury ...
,
and won by Fitchett.
Fitchett served one term and then retired. The electorate was abolished at the end of the term in 1890.
When the electorate was recreated for the , the election was won by
John A. Millar of the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
, who had represented various Dunedin electorates since . At the next election in , Millar successfully stood in the
Dunedin West electorate.
The Dunedin Central electorate was won by
James Arnold in that year, who was also of the Liberal Party. At the , Arnold was beaten by
Charles Statham
Sir Charles Ernest Statham (10 May 1875 – 5 March 1946) was a New Zealand politician, and the ninth Speaker of the House of Representatives, from 1923 to 1935.
Private life
He was born in Dunedin in 1875, and trained in law, practising in hi ...
. Statham was a representative of the
Reform Party, but became an
Independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
in 1919. Statham resigned after the , after irregularities in the counting of the vote turned a 12-vote lead for his competitor
Jim Munro into a 12-vote loss. Munro, who represented the
United Labour Party, and Statham contested the resulting , which was narrowly won by Statham. He continued to represent the electorate until his retirement in 1935.
Peter Neilson of the
Labour Party won the . He served for three terms before he retired in 1946. He was succeeded by Labour's
Phil Connolly in the , who served six terms before he retired.
Brian MacDonell of the Labour Party won the and served seven terms until 1984, when the electorate was abolished. MacDonell then failed to get selected by Labour for the
Dunedin West electorate and then stood as an Independent, but he was unsuccessful.
Members of Parliament
The electorate was represented by nine
Members 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 ...
:
Key
Election results
1981 election
1978 election
1975 election
1972 election
1969 election
1966 election
1963 election
1960 election
1957 election
1954 election
1951 election
1949 election
1946 election
1943 election
1938 election
1935 election
1931 election
1928 election
1915 by-election
1914 election
1886 by-election
Notes
References
*
*
*
{{Historic electorates of New Zealand , state=collapsed
Historical electorates of New Zealand
Politics of Dunedin
1881 establishments in New Zealand
1905 establishments in New Zealand
1890 disestablishments in New Zealand
1984 disestablishments in New Zealand