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