Wellington North (New Zealand electorate)

Wellington North was, from 1905 to 1946, a parliamentary electorate within the area encompassing New Zealand's capital, Wellington. The electorate was represented by four Members of Parliament.

Through the City Single Electorates Act, 1903, the three-member electorates of the four main centres were split again, and this became effective at the end of the 15th Parliament and was thus used for the 1905 election. The City of Wellington electorate was split into the Wellington East, Wellington Central, and Wellington North electorates.^[1] The electorate covered areas north of the central city. For the purpose of the country quota, the electorate has always been regarded as fully urban.^[2] In the 1937 electoral redistribution, Somes Island was transferred from the Hutt to the Wellington North electorate.^[3]

Charles Hayward Izard of the Liberal Party was the electorate's first representative from 1905 to 1908,^[4] when he was defeated by Alexander Herdman.^[5] Herdman had previously represented the Mount Ida electorate. He joined the Reform Party but resigned from Parliament in February 1918.^[6]

Herdman was succeeded by John Luke of the Reform Party in the resulting 1918 by-election.^[7] In the 1928 election, Luke was defeated by Charles Chapman of the Labour Party. Chapman represented the electorate from 1928 to 1946, and moved to the Wellington Central electorate when Wellington North was abolished.^[8]

The electorate was represented by four Members of Parliament:^[9]

Key

  Liberal   Conservative   Reform   Labour

• 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.