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Northern Maori

Northern Maori was one of New Zealand's four original parliamentary Māori electorates established in 1868, along with Eastern Maori, Western Maori and Southern Maori. In 1996, with the introduction of mixed-member proportional representation, the Maori electorates were updated, and Northern Maori was replaced with the Te Tai Tokerau electorate.

Population centres

The electorate included the following population centres (more than 5,000 inhabitants as of 2025): Auckland, Whangārei, Kerikeri, Kaitaia, and Tākiwira.

Tribal areas

The electorate included the following tribal areas: Ngati Kuri, Te Aupouri, Ngati Kahu, Te Rarawa, Nga Puhi, and Ngati Whatua.

History

The Northern Maori electorate boundary was in South Auckland. It extended from Auckland City north to Northland, and had only minor boundary changes from 1868 to 1996.

The first member of parliament for Northern Maori from 1868 was Frederick Nene Russell; he retired in 1870. The second member of parliament from 1871 to 1875 and in 1887 was Wi Katene.

In the there was some doubt about the validity of the election result, and a law was passed to confirm the result in Northern Maori and two other electorates.

The electorate was held by Labour from 1938. Paraire Karaka Paikea died in 1943, and was replaced by his son Tapihana Paraire Paikea.

In 1979, Matiu Rata resigned from the Labour Party as a protest against Labour policies. In 1980 he resigned from Parliament, but came second in the subsequent by-election. The by-election was won by the Labour candidate, Bruce Gregory.

Tau Henare won the electorate from Gregory for New Zealand First in 1993; a foretaste of the success of Henare and the other New Zealand First candidates (known as the Tight Five) in the Māori electorates in 1996. In 1996 with MMP, the Northern Maori electorate was replaced by Te Tai Tokerau, and won by Henare.

Tau Henare is a great-grandson of Taurekareka Henare who had held the electorate for the Reform Party from 1914 to 1938.

Members of Parliament

The Northern Maori electorate was represented by 15 Members of Parliament:

Key

Election	Winner
1868 Māori election]]	Independent politician}}
	Independent politician}}
1876 election	Independent politician}}
	Independent politician}}
	Independent politician}}
	Independent politician}}
	Independent politician}}
	Independent politician}}
	New Zealand Liberal Party}}
	New Zealand Liberal Party}}
	Reform Party (New Zealand)}}"
	Reform Party (New Zealand)}}"
New Zealand National Party}}"
	New Zealand Labour Party}}
	New Zealand Labour Party}}
	New Zealand Labour Party}}"
	New Zealand Labour Party}}"
Independent politician}}"
	New Zealand Labour Party}}
	New Zealand First}}

Election results

Note that the affiliation of many early candidates is not known.

1993 election

|reg. electors = 26,041

1990 election

|reg. electors = 19,517

1987 election

|reg. electors = 18,928

1984 election

|reg. electors = 19,693

1981 election

|reg. electors = 15,997

1980 by-election

1978 election

|reg. electors = 22,933

1975 election

|reg. electors = 14,715

1972 election

|reg. electors = 10,773

1969 election

|reg. electors = 10,807

1966 election

|reg. electors = 12,444

1963 election

|reg. electors = 12,613

1963 by-election

1960 election

|reg. electors = 11,870

1957 election

|reg. electors = 10,785

1954 election

|reg. electors = 9,399

1951 election

|reg. electors = 9,942

1949 election

|reg. electors = 8,697

1946 election

1943 election

1931 election

1909 by-election

1901 by-election

1899 election

1891 by-election

1896 election

1890 election

Notes

Footnotes:

References

"Map of Tribal Areas of New Zealand".
"Elections Validation Act, 1879". New Zealand Law online.
(1993). "Part 1: Votes recorded at each polling place". New Zealand Chief Electoral Office.
(1990). "Part 1: Votes recorded at each polling place". New Zealand Chief Electoral Office.
(1950). "The General Election, 1949". [[National Library of New Zealand.
(1947). "The General Election, 1946". [[National Library of New Zealand.
(1932). "The General Election, 1931". Government Printer.
(19 June 1900). "The General Election, 1899". Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives.
(24 December 1896). "Untitled". Poverty Bay Herald.
(4 December 1890). "The Maori Representation". [[Otago Witness]].

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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