Wairarapa (New Zealand electorate)

The initial 24 New Zealand electorates were defined by Governor George Grey in March 1853, based on the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 that had been passed by the British government. The Constitution Act also allowed the House of Representatives to establish new electorates, and this was first done in 1858, when four new electorates were formed by splitting existing electorates.[1] Wairarapa was one of those four electorates, and it was established by splitting the Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay electorate, and incorporating areas that previously did not belong to any electorate.[2] Settlements in the initial area were Featherston, Carterton, Eketahuna, and Pahiatua.[3] For the 1860 election, there were 266 voters registered.[4]

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 required the transfer of three seats from the South Island to the north. Ten new electorates were created, and one former electorate, Wairarapa, was recreated.[5]

The electorate boundaries were last adjusted in the 2007 redistribution.[6] No boundary adjustments were undertaken in the subsequent 2013/14 or 2019/20 redistributions.[7]

The current electorate includes the following population centres (approximate population in brackets) from the Wairarapa area of the Wellington region, the Tararua District (part of the Manawatū-Whanganui region) and the Central Hawke's Bay District (part of the Hawke's Bay region):

• Masterton (21,400)
• Carterton (5,800)
• Featherston (2,680)
• Greytown (2,690)
• Martinborough (1,930)
• Dannevirke (5,750)
• Pahiatua (2,820)
• Woodville (1,630)
• Waipukurau (4,610)
• Waipawa (2,250)

The first election was held on 7 November 1859, and Charles Carter was the first representative until 1865, when he resigned.[8][8] He was succeeded by Henry Bunny from 1865 to 1881.[9] Since 1871, the electorate had two representatives,[10] and the second one was John Chapman Andrew until he resigned in 1877, succeeded by George Beetham from 1877 to 1881.[11]

From 1881 to 1887 Wairarapa was replaced by two electorates; Wairarapa North and Wairarapa South. From 1887, they were replaced by the Masterton and Wairarapa electorates.[12]

Between 1899 and 1919 the Wairarapa electorate swung between Walter Clarke Buchanan the Conservative then Reform candidate and J. T. Marryat Hornsby the Liberal candidate, changing hands in 1902, 1905, 1908 and 1914.[13] Buchanan's support was in the rural areas, and Hornsby's was in the small towns.

From 1919 to 1928 the electorate was represented by Alexander McLeod for Reform.[14] In 1928 he was defeated by Thomas William McDonald the United (Liberal) candidate, but in 1931 McLeod won the seat back.[15]

Ben Roberts represented the electorate for the Labour Party from the 1935 election until 1946, when he retired.[16] In the 1943 election, Roberts was unsuccessfully challenged by National's Jimmy Maher.[17]

In the 1987 election, Reg Boorman won the initial count by one vote, but Creech later challenged that result on the grounds that Boorman had violated new laws about election spending. Creech also challenged more than 200 votes (on various grounds). The Electoral Court upheld Creech's petition, and Creech won the seat in 1988 with a majority of 34 votes (9994 to 9960).[18]

Creech held the Wairarapa electorate for four parliamentary terms. In December 1997, he became Deputy Leader of the National Party. That gave him number two on the National party list, and he did not contest an electorate in the 1999 election. The National Party stood Paul Henry in the election, but to the general surprise of political commentators, the typically right-leaning electorate was won by Labour's Georgina Beyer with a 3,033 vote majority to become the world's first transsexual member of parliament.[19] At the 2002 election, Beyer was easily re-elected with an increased majority of 6,372 votes.[20] Beyer stood in the 2005 election as a list-only candidate, and the Wairarapa electorate was won by John Hayes of the National Party.[21] Hayes held the electorate for three parliamentary terms and retired at the 2014 election,[21][22] when he was succeeded by National's Alastair Scott.[23]

• Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years : A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00177-6.
• 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.

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library