Bay of Islands is a former New Zealand parliamentary
electorate. It existed during various periods between 1853 and 1993. It was thus one of the original 24 electoral districts, and New Zealand's first ever MP was elected, although unopposed, in the Bay of Islands;
Hugh Carleton thus liked to be called the
Father of the House.
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 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, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated, including Bay of Islands. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries.[1]
Hugh Carleton was elected to the seat in the first
New Zealand Parliament in 1853. Although he was elected unopposed, he was the first MP elected and liked to be called Father of the House.[2] He represented the seat until 1870, when he was defeated.[3]
The Bay of Islands electorate existed from 1853 to 1870, then from 1881 to 1946 (when it was replaced by the
Hobson electorate), then from 1978 to 1993, after which it became the
Far North electorate.[4] In 1996 it became the
Northland electorate.
The
1893 election was contested by Houston (1431 votes), Trownson (1200 votes) and Dargaville (399 votes). The incumbent was thus re-elected.[7]
The
1896 election was contested by Houston (1592 votes) and John Press (965 votes). The incumbent was again re-elected.[8] Houston remained the electorate's representative until he retired at the
1908 election.[9]
Houston was succeeded by
Vernon Reed, who represented the Liberal Party in the 1908 and
1911 elections.[10] The opposition candidate in 1908 was John Charles Johnson,[11] and by 1911 the
Reform Party had established itself and George Wilkinson was their candidate.[12]
Harold Rushworth of the
Country Party represented the electorate from the
1928 election onwards.[13] For the
1935 election, the
United Party chose Robert Boyd Russell as their candidate. On 7 October 1935, Russell died in a rifle accident on his farm.[14] The United Party selected Clive Cameron as their replacement candidate.[15]