New Zealand general election, 1899

1899 general election

6 (general) & 19 December (Māori) 1899

All 74 seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives 38 seats were needed for a majority Turnout 77.6%   First party Second party   Leader Richard Seddon William Russell Party Liberal Conservative Leader since 1893 1894 Leader's seat Westland Hawkes Bay Last election 39 seats 26 seats Seats won 49 19 Seat change 10 7 Popular vote 204,331 141,758 Percentage 52.71% 36.67% Swing 2.07 2.68

Prime Minister before election Richard Seddon Liberal Prime Minister-designate Richard Seddon Liberal

The New Zealand general election of 1899 was held on 6 and 19 December in the European and Māori electorates, respectively, to elect 74 MPs to the 14th session of the New Zealand Parliament. The election was again won by the Liberal Party, and Richard Seddon remained Prime Minister.

1896 electoral redistribution

The last electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1896 for the 1896 election, and the same electorates were used again.^[1] 34 seats were located in the North Island, 36 were in the South Island, and the remaining four were Māori electorates.^[2] Since the 1890 electoral redistribution, the four main centres had electorates with three seats each.^[3]

The election

The 1899 election was held on Wednesday, 6 December in the general electorates, and on Tuesday, 19 December in the Māori electorates to elect a total of 74 MPs to the 14th Parliament.^[4] A total number of 373,744 (77.6%) voters turned out to vote.^[5][6] In three electorates there was only one candidate, and they were thus returned unopposed.^[5] Two of those were Liberal candidates: Richard Seddon in the Westland electorate, and John McKenzie in the Waihemo electorate. The third was an opposition representative, William Russell, who stood in the Hawke's Bay electorate.^[7]

Two candidates died during the election campaign. A third, Henry Augustus Field, died two days after having been re-elected in the Otaki electorate.^[8]

Results

Party totals

The following table gives party strengths and vote distribution according to Wilson (1985), who records Maori representatives as Independents prior to the 1905 election.^[9]

Votes summary

Electorate results

Seventy-four MPs were elected across sixty-two single-member, and four three-member electorates. The table below show the results of the 1899 general election:

Key

  Liberal     Conservative     Independent Liberal     Liberal-Labour     Independent  

Table footnotes:

Notes

References

• McRobie, Alan (1989). Electoral Atlas of New Zealand. Wellington: GP Books. ISBN 0-477-01384-8. 
• Scholefield, Guy, ed. (1940a). A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography : A–L (PDF). I. Wellington: Department of Internal Affairs. Retrieved 6 October 2013. 
• Scholefield, Guy, ed. (1940b). A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography : M–Addenda (PDF). II. Wellington: Department of Internal Affairs. Retrieved 6 October 2013. 
• Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103. 

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