1905 New Zealand general election

Changes to the electoral law

The 1903 City Single Electorates Act declared that at the dissolution of the 15th Parliament, the four multi-member electorates would be abolished and replaced each with three single-member electorates. It was also the year absentee voting was introduced for all electors unable to be in their own electorate on election day. The first Chief Electoral Officer was appointed.

Accordingly, the multi-member urban electorates of , , and were abolished and replaced with the following single-member seats:

Nine of these twelve electorates had existed before. Wellington Central, Wellington North, and Dunedin North were established for the first time.

Historic context

In 1905 a progressive faction within the Liberal Party started to form in opposition to Liberal leader Richard Seddon's policies. They announced that they would stand in the election as the New Liberal Party, however an accusation against Seddon's son, when disproven saw most of the dissidents return to the Liberal Party, and of the four New Liberals (George Laurenson, Francis Fisher, Harry Bedford and Tommy Taylor) that stood in the election only Laurenson and Fisher were returned.

The freshly created Independent Political Labour League also contested the election as a breakaway faction from the Liberals. It was the first of many steps of a gradual move by urban labourers shifting allegiance to an independent working-class political party. Previously, most workers had supported the Liberal Party, which since the 1890s had attempted to gain Trade Union support by appointing union representatives to the party's governing body. The IPLL did not perform well, gaining only 3,478 votes nationwide with no candidates elected.

The Rev Frank Isitt was the Prohibition candidate for several South Island electorates, and came second in two.

Results

Party totals

The following table gives party strengths and vote distribution.

Votes summary

Electorate results

The following are the results of the 1905 general election:

Key

Notes

References

References

1. "General elections 1853–2005 – dates & turnout". Elections New Zealand.
2. (7 December 1905). "Results of the Polls". [[Ashburton Guardian]].
3. (1906). "The General Election, 1905". [[National Library of New Zealand.
4. (29 November 1905). "The Nominations". Marlborough Express.
5. (9 September 1905). "Personal Matters". [[The Evening Post (New Zealand).
6. (22 September 1939). "Deaths". [[The Evening Post (New Zealand).