Hawkes Bay (New Zealand electorate)

Hawke's Bay was a parliamentary electorate in the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand from 1881 to 1996. In 1986 it was renamed Hawkes Bay (without an apostrophe).

Population centres

The previous electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1875 for the 1875–76 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 Hawke's Bay, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries.

Prior to the 1881 electoral redistribution, the Napier electorate covered not just the town of Napier, but also its rural hinterland. The northern boundary was the 39th latitude, the arbitrary line established in 1853 that formed the boundary between the original Wellington and Auckland Provinces. In 1881, this arbitrary boundary line was abolished, and the East Coast electorate came across this line to the south. Inland, the Hawke's Bay electorate went across the line to the north and took up most of the rural part of the former Napier electorate, but it also went into the area of the Rangitikei electorate, and the town of Hastings was gained from the Clive electorate, which was abolished and replaced with Waipawa. Other settlements that belonged to the Hawke's Bay electorate in its initial shape were Bay View, Fernhill, and Havelock North.

History

The electorate was represented by twelve Members of Parliament:

The 1996 general election was held early, on 12 October, to avoid the need for a by-election after the resignation of Michael Laws.

Members of Parliament

Key

  Independent     Liberal     Reform     Labour     National  

Election	Winner
1881 election		Fred Sutton
1884 election		William Russell
1887 election
1890 election
1893 election
1896 election
1899 election
1902 election
1905 election		Alfred Dillon
1908 election
1911 election		Hugh Campbell
1914 election		Robert McNab
1917 by-election		John Findlay
1919 election		Hugh Campbell (2nd period)
1922 election		Gilbert McKay
1925 election		Hugh Campbell (3rd period)
1928 election
1931 election
1935 election		Edward Cullen
1938 election
1943 election
1946 election		Cyril Harker
1949 election
1951 election
1954 election
1957 election
1960 election
1963 election		Richard Harrison
1966 election
1969 election
1972 election
1975 election
1978 election
1981 election
1984 election		Bill Sutton
1987 election
1990 election		Michael Laws
1993 election
(Electorate abolished in 1996)

Election results

1931 election

General election, 1931: Hawke's Bay

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Reform	Hugh Campbell	6,124	61.31
	Labour	E L Cullen	3,865	38.69
Majority			2,259	22.61
Informal votes			53	0.53
Turnout			10,042	80.25
Registered electors			12,514

1893 election

General election, 1893: Hawke's Bay

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Opposition	William Russell	1,874	40.76
	Liberal	Charles William Reardon	1,804	39.23
	Liberal	Thomas Tanner	920	20.01
Majority			70	1.52
Turnout			4,598	93.19
Registered electors			4,934