28 November (general) & 20 December (Māori) 1893 1896 → 40 seats 25 seats 11 12 Start date 1893 | Turnout 75.3% 51 13 175,814 74,482 | |
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Winner Richard Seddon | ||
The New Zealand general election of 1893 was held on 28 November and 20 December in the European and Māori electorates, respectively, to elect 74 MPs to the 12th session of the New Zealand Parliament. The election was won by the Liberal Party, and Richard Seddon became Prime Minister.
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1893 was the year universal suffrage was granted to women over 21 (including Māori), plural registration was abolished, plural voting for Māori property-owners was abolished, and only those whose descent was exactly half Māori were allowed to choose whether to vote in European or Māori electorates. Women's suffrage was the most consequential change.
1892 electoral redistribution
The previous electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1890 for the 1890 election. The 1891 census was the first to automatically trigger an electoral redistribution, which was undertaken in 1892. The population drift to the North Island resulted in the transfer of one electorate from the south to the north. Only three electorates remained with unaltered boundaries: Thames, Wairarapa, and Timaru. 14 new electorates were established, and of those, eight electorates were established for the first time: Bay of Plenty, Otaki, Pareora, Patea, Riccarton, Waiapu, Waimea-Sounds, and Wellington Suburbs. The remaining six electorates had existed before, and they were re-established for the 12th Parliament: Caversham, Chalmers, Lyttelton, Rangitata, Waihemo, and Waipa.
Women's suffrage
By far the most notable change for the 1893 election was that the Electoral Act, 1893, extended the franchise to all women (including Māori) aged 21 and over. Women's suffrage was granted after about two decades of campaigning by women such as Kate Sheppard and Mary Ann Müller and organisations such as the New Zealand branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union led by Anne Ward. Of countries presently independent, New Zealand was the first to give women the vote in modern times. John Hall, a Conservative politician and former premier, received most of the credit for pushing the legislation through Parliament; he is the only male who has his name inscribed on the Kate Sheppard National Memorial. There were only 10 weeks between the passage of the legislation and the election, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) set about to enrol as many women as possible.
Although the Liberal government, who the bill had passed under, generally advocated social and political reform, the bill was only passed due to a combination of personality issues and political accident (unlike many other Liberals, Seddon opposed it). Both the Liberals and the Conservatives subsequently claimed credit for sponsoring the enfranchisement of women and thus, both sought to acquire women's votes, though the Liberals benefitted more.
The election
The 1893 election was held on Tuesday, 28 November in the general electorates, and on Wednesday, 20 December in the Māori electorates to elect a total of 74 MPs to the 12th Parliament.
A total number of 302,997 (75.3%) voters turned out to vote. 65% of all eligible New Zealand women voted in the 1893 election. In 3 seats there was only one candidate. 31 and 39 electorates were in the North Island and South Island, respectively, plus the 4 Māori electorates.
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.
Electorate results
The following is a table of electorate results by electorate. Key
Liberal Conservative Liberal-Labour Independent Liberal Independent
Table footnotes: