Waimate 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

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

region of New Zealand from 1881 to 1893 and from 1946 to 1957. It was represented by three

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 ...

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 1875–76 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 Waimate, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries. The area for the electorate was in its entirety from the electorate, which continued to exist with a much reduced geographic size. The southern boundary of the electorate was the

Waitaki River The Waitaki River is a large braided river that drains the Mackenzie Basin and runs some south-east to enter the Pacific Ocean between Timaru and Oamaru on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It starts at the confluence of the � ...

, and the electorate was centred on the town of

Waimate Waimate is a town in Canterbury, New Zealand and the seat of Waimate District. It is situated just inland from the eastern coast of the South Island. The town is reached via a short detour west when travelling on State Highway One, the main No ...

. In the 1887 electoral redistribution, the electorate shifted north and became much smaller. It now shared a boundary with the electorate. The Representation Act 1887 wrote the

country quota The country quota was a part of the New Zealand electoral system from 1881 until 1945, when it was abolished by the First Labour Government. Its effect was to make urbanUrban electorate were those that contained cities or boroughs of over 2000 pe ...

into legislation and the Waimate electorate was classed as 100% rural (i.e. Waimate Borough had a population of less than 2,000 people at that time). The

1941 New Zealand census The New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings ( mi, Te Tatauranga o ngā Tāngata Huri Noa i Aotearoa me ō rātou Whare Noho) is a national population and housing census conducted by government department Statistics New Zealand every five y ...

had been postponed due to World War II, so the 1946 electoral redistribution had to take ten years of population growth and movements into account. The

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 ...

gained a further two electorates from the

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 ...

due to faster population growth. The abolition of the country quota through the ''Electoral Amendment Act, 1945'' reduced the number and increased the size of rural electorates. None of the existing electorates remained unchanged, 27 electorates were abolished, 19 electorates were created for the first time, and eight former electorates were re-established, including Waimate. After years of political tension, the National Government came to an agreement with the Labour Party on the redistribution provisions of the electoral law. This resulted in the ''1956 Electoral Act'', which significantly changed the composition of the Representation Commission; since then, there has been one member representing the government, and one the opposition, apart from all the official members. Tolerance to the electoral quota was reduced again to 5%. The 1957 electoral redistribution made an adjustments in the number of electorates between the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

and

s, with Waimate in the South Island abolished and in the North Island reconstituted. Combined with significant population redistributions within the islands, the boundaries of all but two electorates were altered. These changes took effect with the .

History

Waimate existed from 1881 to 1893 and from 1946 to 1957.

Members of Parliament

The electorate was represented by three Members of Parliament: Key

Election results

1954 election

1951 election

1949 election

1946 election

1890 election

Notes

References

* * * {{Historic electorates of New Zealand , state=collapsed Historical electorates of New Zealand 1881 establishments in New Zealand 1946 establishments in New Zealand 1893 disestablishments in New Zealand 1957 disestablishments in New Zealand Waimate