The 10th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
of New Zealand. Elections for this term were held in 4
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 ...
and 91 European electorates on 7 and 26 September 1887, respectively. A total of 95 MPs were elected. Parliament was prorogued in October 1890. During the term of this Parliament, two Ministries were in power.
Sessions
The 10th Parliament opened on 6 October 1887, following the
1887 general election. It sat for four sessions, and was prorogued on 3 October 1890.
Historical context
The Representation Act 1887 had major implication for the procedure of revising electoral boundaries. The revision task was transferred from committees formed by MPs to a permanent
Representation Commission. The act specified that a
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 ...
of 18% be applied to all designated districts that excluded boroughs with a population above 2,000 people, and that all electorates were to have the same nominal population within a tolerance of 750 people. It was also stipulated that electoral boundaries were to be reviewed after each
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 ...
.
In the 1887 electoral redistribution, although the
Representation Commission was required through the Representation Act 1887 to maintain existing electorates "as far as possible", rapid population growth in 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 ...
required the transfer of three seats 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 ...
to the north. Ten new electorates were created: , , , , , , ,
, , and . One former electorate, , was recreated.
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
The
second Stout-Vogel Ministry had been in power since 3 September 1884 until 8 October 1887, just after the
1887 general election to determine the composition of the 10th Parliament. The
fourth Atkinson Ministry, known as the ''
Scarecrow Ministry'', lasted for the remainder of the term until 24 January 1891.
Initial composition of the 10th Parliament
95 seats were created across the electorates.
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 published in 1913 , year= 1985 , publisher=V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer , location= Wellington , oclc= 154283103
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