5th New Zealand Parliament

The fifth New Zealand Parliament was a term of the New Zealand Parliament.

Elections for this term were held in 68 European electorates between 14 January and 23 February 1871. Elections in the four Māori electorates were held on 1 and 15 January 1871. A total of 78 MPs were elected. Parliament was prorogued in December 1875. During the term of this Parliament, six Ministries were in power.

The fifth Parliament opened on 14 August 1871, following the 1871 general election. It sat for five sessions, and was prorogued on 6 December 1875.

Political parties had not been established yet; this only happened after the 1890 election. Anyone attempting to form an administration thus had to win support directly from individual MPs. This made first forming, and then retaining a government difficult and challenging.

Since June 1869, the third Fox Ministry was in power, led by Premier William Fox. On 10 September 1872, the third Stafford Ministry was formed, which lasted 13 months. This was followed by the Waterhouse Ministry, from 11 October 1872 to 3 March 1873. The fourth Fox Ministry was short lived, from 3 March 1873 to 8 April 1873. The first Vogel Ministry was in power from 8 April 1873 to 6 July 1875. It was succeeded by the Pollen Ministry, which lasted into the term of the sixth Parliament.

78 seats were created across the electorates. 68 European electorates and 4 Māori electorates were defined by the Representation Act 1870. Six of the general electorates had two representatives, the rest were single member electorates. Hence, 78 MPs were elected.

This compares to 61 electorates used in the previous general election in 1866, and 65 electorates after the Māori electorates were created in 1867. Electorates that were first formed for the 1871 elections were East Coast, Eden, Rodney, Thames, Waikato, Waitemata, Egmont, Manawatu, Buller, Grey Valley, Christchurch East, Christchurch West, Hokitika, Totara, Dunstan, Mount Ida, Tuapeka, Waitaki, Waikaia, and Wakatipu.

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