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8th New Zealand Parliament

Parliamentary term

Field	Value
name	8th Parliament of New Zealand
body	New Zealand Parliament
election	[1881 New Zealand general election](1881-new-zealand-general-election)
government	Hall ministry (until 1882)
Whitaker ministry (1882 - 1883)
Third Atkinson ministry (from 1883)
term_start	18 May 1882
term_end	24 June 1884
before	[7th Parliament](7th-new-zealand-parliament)
after	[9th Parliament](9th-new-zealand-parliament)
website
chamber1	House of Representatives
membership1	95
chamber1_leader1_type	Speaker of the House
chamber1_leader1	Maurice O'Rorke
chamber1_leader2_type	Premier
chamber1_leader2	Harry Atkinson
— from 25 September 1883
John Hall
— until 21 April 1882
chamber2	Legislative Council
membership2	47 (at start)
49 (at end)
chamber2_leader1_type	Speaker of the Council
chamber2_leader1	William Fitzherbert
chamber2_leader2_type	Premier
chamber2_leader2	Frederick Whitaker
— 21 April 1882 – 25 September 1883
chamber3	Sovereign
chamber3_leader1_type	Monarch
chamber3_leader1	HM Victoria
chamber3_leader2_type	Governor
chamber3_leader2	HE Lt. Gen. Sir William Jervois from 20 January 1883
— HE Rt. Hon. Sir Arthur Hamilton-Gordon until 24 June 1882

Whitaker ministry (1882 - 1883) Third Atkinson ministry (from 1883) | chamber1_alt– = — from 25 September 1883

John Hall — until 21 April 1882 49 (at end) — 21 April 1882 – 25 September 1883 — HE Rt. Hon. Sir Arthur Hamilton-Gordon until 24 June 1882 The 8th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the New Zealand Parliament.

Elections for this term were held in 4 Māori electorates and 91 general electorates on 8 and 9 December 1881, respectively. A total of 95 MPs were elected, i.e. multi-member electorates were no longer used. Parliament was prorogued in June 1884. During the term of this Parliament, three Ministries were in power.

Sessions

The 8th Parliament opened on 18 May 1882, following the 1881 general election. It sat for three sessions, and was prorogued on 27 June 1884.

Session	Opened	Adjourned
first	18 May 1882	15 September 1882
second	14 June 1883	8 September 1883
third	5 June 1884	24 June 1884

Historical context

Portraits depicting members of the 1882 House of Representatives.

Political parties had not been established yet; this only happened after the 1890 election. Anyone attempting to form an administration thus had to win support directly from individual MPs. This made first forming, and then retaining a government difficult and challenging.

The capital had moved from Auckland to Wellington in 1865. Parliament was meeting in the Provincial Council buildings. With the increase in the number of Members of Parliament to 70, conditions became very crowded. The original building "grew like topsy" until the end of the 19th century, and was consumed by fire on 11 December 1907.

In 1868, the first elections were held in the four Māori electorates that were created in the previous year.

Ministries

The Hall Ministry under Premier John Hall had been in power since 8 October 1879. This ministry lasted until 21 April 1882. It was succeeded by the Whitaker Ministry, which lasted until 25 September 1883. The second Atkinson Ministry succeeded it. This Ministry finished on 16 August 1884, just after the 1884 general election for the 9th Parliament.

Electorates

Ninety-one general and four Māori electorates were used for the 1881 elections, i.e. the previous multi-member electorates were abolished. The changes were the result of the Representation Act 1881. The previous electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1875 for the 1875–1876 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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and . In addition, two electorates that had previously been abolished were recreated: and .

These changes necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries. Only six electorates remained unchanged: , , , , , and .

Initial composition of the 8th Parliament

95 seats were created across the electorates.

Changes during term

There were a number of changes during the term of the 8th Parliament.

By-election	Electorate	Date	Incumbent	Reason	Winner

Notes

References

{{cite book |access-date = 24 October 2015
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{{cite book |author-link = Michael King (historian)
{{cite book |author-link = Guy Scholefield |orig-year= First ed. published 1913
{{cite book |orig-year= First ed. published 1913

References

"History Buildings and grounds". New Zealand Parliament.
"Parliament timeline". New Zealand Parliament.
"Representation Act 1881(45 VICT 1881 No 14)". New Zealand Legal Information Institute.
"General elections 1853–2005 - dates & turnout". Elections New Zealand.
(21 April 1866). "The New Parliament". [[Otago Witness]].

Info: Wikipedia Source

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