The fifth 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 hi ...

. Elections for this term were held in 68 European electorates between 14 January and 23 February 1871. Elections in the four

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 ...

were held on 1 and 15 January 1871. A total of 78 MPs were elected. Parliament was prorogued in December 1875. During the term of this Parliament, six Ministries were in power.

Sessions

The fifth Parliament opened on 14 August 1871, following the 1871 general election. It sat for five sessions, and was prorogued on 6 December 1875.

Historical context

Political parties had not been established yet; this only happened after the 1890 election. Anyone attempting to form an administration thus had to win support directly from individual MPs. This made first forming, and then retaining a government difficult and challenging.

Ministries

Since June 1869, the third Fox Ministry was in power, led by

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

William Fox. On 10 September 1872, the third Stafford Ministry was formed, which lasted 13 months. This was followed by the Waterhouse Ministry, from 11 October 1872 to 3 March 1873. The fourth Fox Ministry was short lived, from 3 March 1873 to 8 April 1873. The first Vogel Ministry was in power from 8 April 1873 to 6 July 1875. It was succeeded by the Pollen Ministry, which lasted into the term of the sixth Parliament.

Initial composition of the fifth Parliament

78 seats were created across the electorates. 68 European electorates and 4 Māori electorates were defined by the Representation Act 1870. Six of the general electorates had two representatives, the rest were single member electorates. Hence, 78 MPs were elected. This compares to 61 electorates used in the previous general election in

1866 Events January–March * January 1 ** Fisk University, a historically black university, is established in Nashville, Tennessee. ** The last issue of the abolitionist magazine '' The Liberator'' is published. * January 6 – Ottoman t ...

, and 65 electorates after the

were created in 1867. Electorates that were first formed for the 1871 elections were , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and .

Changes during term

There were numerous changes during the term of the fifth Parliament. ;Akaroa

Robert Heaton Rhodes Robert Heaton Rhodes (1815 – 1 June 1884) was a New Zealand politician, who represented the Akaroa electorate from 1871 to 1874, when he resigned. He was elected unopposed in 1871. Born in 1815 in Rotherham, in the English county of York ...

resigned on 18 February 1874. William Montgomery won the subsequent 24 April 1874 by-election. In July 1874, a select committee declared Montgomery's election to be "null and void", as he had a contract for the supply of railway sleepers with the general government in breach of election rules. The select committee accepted that the breach was inadvertent. Montgomery stood for re-election in a 10 August 1874 by-election and was returned unopposed. ;Caversham

Richard Cantrell Richard Seaward Cantrell (1825 – 11 August 1872) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from Dunedin, New Zealand. Cantrell was born in England in 1825. He arrived in Dunedin in 1858 and took over the Commercial Hotel in December of that ...

resigned on 31 July 1872. He was succeeded by William Tolmie in a 28 August 1872 by-election, and he served until his death on 8 August 1875.

Robert Stout Sir Robert Stout (28 September 1844 – 19 July 1930) was a New Zealand politician who was the 13th premier of New Zealand on two occasions in the late 19th century, and later Chief Justice of New Zealand. He was the only person to hold bot ...

, a later Prime Minister, first entered Parliament through the resulting 20 August 1875 by-election. ;Coleridge John Karslake Karslake resigned on 12 April 1872 to return to England (he drowned on the voyage home on 21 June 1872). William Bluett succeeded him through the 22 July 1872 by-election. ;Collingwood Arthur Collins resigned on 8 October 1873. The resulting 9 December 1873 by-election was won by William Gibbs. ;City of Dunedin Bathgate resigned in 1874 and was succeeded by Nathaniel Wales. ;City of Nelson Lightband resigned in 1872 to return to England. He was succeeded by

David Luckie David Mitchell Luckie (5 October 1827 – 6 May 1909) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from Nelson, New Zealand. Background Luckie was born in Montrose, Forfarshire, Scotland, on 5 October 1827. He was the son of Thomas Luckie, a mercha ...

. ;Egmont Gisborne resigned in 1872 and was succeeded by Harry Atkinson. ;Franklin Clark resigned in 1874 and was succeeded by Joseph May.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * *{{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 05