Inangahua (New Zealand electorate)


Inangahua is a former parliamentary electorate in the Buller District, which is part of the West Coast region of New Zealand, from 1881 to 1896. The town of Inangahua Junction, which gave the electorate its name, was located in the adjacent electorate until 1887.

Population centres

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. 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 Inangahua, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries.
The original electorate was landlocked. Springs Junction and Reefton were located in the Inangahua electorate, but the township of Inangahua itself was located in the adjacent electorate. In the 1887 electoral redistribution, the electorate expanded to the north and the west, gained access to the coast, and gained the townships of Inangahua, Owen River, and Murchison.

History

Inangahua was represented by six Members of Parliament: Thomas S. Weston from 1881 to 1883, Edward Shaw from 1883 to 1884, Andrew Agnew Stuart Menteath from 1884 to 1887. Richard Reeves represented the electorate from to 1893, when he was adjudged bankrupt. He was challenged in the by John Drake, a representative of Labour Unionists. The incumbent won the election by a one-vote margin.
Robert Stout was briefly a member in 1893 after Reeves resigned when he became bankrupt. Stout successfully stood in the City of Wellington electorate in the. The last representative for Inangahua was Patrick O'Regan from 1893 to 1896. When Inangahua was abolished in 1896, O'Regan was elected for Buller.

Members of Parliament

Key

Election results

1893 election

1893 by-election

1890 election

1881 election