Half a Crown for Your Vote, Sir

Map of the East Coast Electorate, 1876 (McRobie, 1989)

A central Parliament and Provincial Councils governed New Zealand from 1852 until 1876 when the Abolition of the Provinces Act of 1876 brought an end to that system. Tauranga was a small town with a population of less than 300 residents who believed they were poorly done by under the Auckland Provincial Council. The new electorate of East Coast stretched from the Bay of Plenty coastline around East Cape to Wairoa and then in a straight-line west to the southern end of Lake Taupo, with Tauranga once again a small town in one corner of the region.

Parliament House from garden, c.1897-1903
Silver gelatin print mounted on album page, Ranfurly family Collection
Courtesy of Alexander Turbull Library, Ref. PA1-f-194-15

There were four candidates for the 1876 election:

• William Kelly from Ireland, who in 1865 set up a shipping business between Opotiki and Auckland and was a member of the Provincial Council;
• George Edward Read who arrived in the Pacific as a whaler, became a first mate on various trading vessels, advanced to captain, and by 1852 owned a 20-ton schooner, the Mendlesham named after his home village in Suffolk. Read quickly established himself as Gisborne district’s principal trader;
• Captain George Bentham Morris, a Tasmanian, also a Provincial Councillor and a resident of the Bay of Plenty;
• and finally Wi Marsh.

Land issues dominated political debate in 1876 and Kelly described himself as the small holders’ friend and advertised “vote for Kelly and speedy settlement of native land title”. He supported income tax and favoured true local government by the county and borough councils. 

Hon Capt G B Morris MLC, c.1875-1880
Carte de visite portrait by R.H. Bartlett, Auckland
Courtesy of Alexander Turbull Library, Ref. PA2-0213

Morris believed that more land should be opened up for settlement at less than £2 per acre. He supported property tax and described himself as “the people’s candidate”.

Read called on people to vote for him to look after their interests “which are identical with his own”, and was strongly supportive of the people of the Gisborne area.

The low population meant that there were only polling places at Tauranga, Maketu, Opotiki, Whakatane, Gisborne, and Wairoa. The Tauranga court house was the principal polling place in the electorate and results were received by telegraph. Only 62% of the roll voted and distance could account for that.

Gisborne’s Captain Read won, as Kelly and Morris split the Bay of Plenty vote. The results were Read 215, Morris 206, Kelly 185 and Marsh 10.

Read’s tally was helped by his supporters providing pieces of cardboard valued at 2/6 and 10/- that could be redeemed for drinks at Gisborne hotels.  In the Tauranga Court a case was heard against Major C D Pitt for inducing Fairfax Johnson to procure the vote of certain electors in favour of G E Read at the election, and Pitt was fined £50. A Parliamentary Inquiry found that Read has not approved the actions of his agents so he was not prosecuted but had to forfeit the seat to Captain Morris.

The following election in 1879 was held on the same boundaries and A C MacDonald of Gisborne won so the support from East Coast voters was still greater than from the Bay of Plenty.

Sources

WH Gifford & HB Williams, A Centennial History of Tauranga, (Tauranga Centennial Committee, 1940)
A McRobie, New Zealand Electoral Atlas (GP Books, 1989)
M Bassett, The State in NZ 1840-1984 (Auckland University Press, 1998)