Inangahua (New Zealand electorate)
Inangahua is a former parliamentary electorate in the Buller District, which is part of the West Coast region of New Zealand, from 1881 to 1896. The town of Inangahua Junction, which gave the electorate its name, was located in the adjacent Buller electorate until 1887.
Population centres
[edit]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 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 Inangahua, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries.[1]
The original electorate was landlocked. Springs Junction and Reefton were located in the Inangahua electorate, but the township of Inangahua itself was located in the adjacent Buller electorate.[2] In the 1887 electoral redistribution, the electorate expanded to the north and the west, gained access to the coast, and gained the townships of Inangahua, Owen River (a settlement during the gold rush), and Murchison.[3]
History
[edit]Inangahua was represented by six Members of Parliament:[4] Thomas S. Weston from 1881 to 1883 (resigned),[5] Edward Shaw from 1883 to 1884 (retired),[6] Andrew Agnew Stuart Menteath from 1884 to 1887 (elected for Te Aro electorate).[7] Richard Reeves represented the electorate from 1887 to 1893, when he was adjudged bankrupt. He was challenged in the 1890 election by John Drake, a representative of Labour Unionists.[8] The incumbent won the election by a one-vote margin (1003 votes to 1002).[9]
Robert Stout was briefly a member in 1893 (from 8 June to 8 November) after Reeves (a fellow Liberal Party member) resigned when he became bankrupt. Stout successfully stood in the City of Wellington electorate in the 1893 election.[10] The last representative for Inangahua was Patrick O'Regan from 1893 to 1896. When Inangahua was abolished in 1896, O'Regan was elected for Buller.[11]
Members of Parliament
[edit]Key
| Election | Winner | |
|---|---|---|
| 1881 election | Thomas S. Weston | |
| 1883 by-election | Edward Shaw | |
| 1884 election | Andrew Menteath | |
| 1887 election | Richard Reeves | |
| 1890 election | ||
| 1893 by-election | Robert Stout | |
| 1893 election | Patrick O'Regan | |
| (Electorate abolished in 1896; see Buller) | ||
Election results
[edit]1893 election
[edit]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Patrick O'Regan | 1,121 | 38.91 | +9.58 | |
| Independent | William Goodwin Collings | 917 | 31.83 | ||
| Liberal | Richard Reeves | 843 | 29.26 | ||
| Majority | 204 | 7.08 | −34.28 | ||
| Turnout | 2,881 | 82.74 | |||
| Registered electors | 3,482 | ||||
1893 by-election
[edit]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Robert Stout | 1,899 | 70.67 | ||
| Liberal | Patrick O'Regan | 788 | 29.33 | ||
| Majority | 611 | 41.36 | |||
| Turnout | 2,687 | ||||
1890 election
[edit]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Richard Reeves | 1,103 | 50.03 | ||
| Conservative | John Drake | 1,102 | 49.97 | ||
| Majority | 1 | 0.04 | |||
| Turnout | 2,205 | 64.09 | |||
| Registered electors | 3,440 | ||||
1881 election
[edit]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent | Thomas S. Weston | 739 | 57.11 | ||
| Independent | Richard Reeves | 516 | 39.88 | ||
| Independent | William McLean | 39 | 3.01 | ||
| Majority | 223 | 17.23 | |||
| Turnout | 1,294 | 65.89 | |||
| Registered electors | 1,964 | ||||
Notes
[edit]- ^ McRobie 1989, pp. 43–48.
- ^ McRobie 1989, p. 49.
- ^ McRobie 1989, pp. 51–53.
- ^ Wilson 1985, p. 265.
- ^ Wilson 1985, p. 245.
- ^ Wilson 1985, p. 234.
- ^ Wilson 1985, p. 219.
- ^ "General Election". Inangahua Times. Vol. XV, no. 20881. 17 November 1890. p. 2. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
- ^ "The General Election, 1890". National Library. 1891. p. 2. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
- ^ Wilson 1985, p. 237.
- ^ Wilson 1985, p. 224.
- ^ "The General Election, 1893". National Library. 1894. p. 2. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
- ^ "The General Election". Otago Daily Times. 28 November 1893. p. 6. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- ^ "The Inangahua Election". The Star. No. 4666. 9 June 1893. p. 3. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
- ^ "The General Election, 1890". National Library. 1891. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
- ^ "Nelson and Blenheim Elections". Auckland Star. Vol. XII, no. 3540. 10 December 1881. p. 3. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
References
[edit]- McRobie, Alan (1989). Electoral Atlas of New Zealand. Wellington: GP Books. ISBN 0-477-01384-8.
- Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
