Moeraki 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

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

region of New Zealand, from 1881 to 1887.

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 Moeraki, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries. The electorate was based on the settlement of

Moeraki Moeraki is a small fishing village on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It was once the location of a whaling station. In the 1870s, local interests believed it could become the main port for the north Otago area and a railwa ...

History

Moeraki was established for the and was abolished after two parliamentary terms in 1887. The electorate was represented by one

Member 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 ...

, John McKenzie. This was McKenzie's first time in Parliament. The 1881 election was contested by McKenzie, William Henry Williams (Manager of the Shag Point Colliery) and William Murcott, who received 364, 165 and 130 votes, respectively. McKenzie thus won the election with an absolute majority. In the , McKenzie was challenged by Charles Haynes. McKenzie and Haynes received 389 and 273 votes, respectively. After the Moeraki electorate was abolished, McKenzie successfully contested the electorate in the . He remained in Parliament until 1900, and in 1901 was appointed to the

New Zealand Legislative Council The New Zealand Legislative Council was the upper house of the General Assembly of New Zealand between 1853 and 1951. An earlier arrangement of legislative councils for the colony and provinces existed from 1841 when New Zealand became a co ...

shortly before his death.

Election results

Key

Notes

References

* * {{Historic electorates of New Zealand , state=collapsed Historical electorates of New Zealand 1881 establishments in New Zealand 1887 disestablishments in New Zealand