Akaroa (New Zealand electorate)

Akaroa was a New Zealand electorate. It was located in on Banks Peninsula, in Canterbury, and named after the town of the same name.

History

The electorate of Akaroa was one of the twenty-four original electorates, used in New Zealand's first general election. Its boundary was a straight line running due south from Port Levy across the peninsula. Its only neighbour was the large, rural electorate of Christchurch Country, which covered most of Canterbury and the West Coast. In subsequent years, the electorate's boundaries shifted slightly, retreating on the Peninsula's northern coast and expanding on the its southern coast (gaining the Kaitore Spit, between Lake Ellesmere and the sea). In the 1870 elections, the bulk of Mount Herbert electorate, which covered the land around Lyttelton Harbour except for Lyttelton itself, was absorbed into Akaroa. Later, in the 1887 elections, the electorate gained a spur extending almost as far west as Lincoln, but lost this again in the 1890 elections. In the 1893 elections, Akaroa was merged with the portions of Ellesmere electorate which bordered the lake, with the resulting electorate retaining the name Ellesmere.

Election results