Tauranga (New Zealand electorate)

Tauranga is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The current MP for Tauranga is Simon Bridges of the National Party, who won the seat in the 2008 New Zealand general election, after the previous MP, Bob Clarkson of the National Party, retired.

The previous electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1875 for the 1875–76 election. In the six years since, New Zealand's European population had increased by 65%. In the 1881 electoral redistribution, the House of Representatives increased the number of European representatives to 91 (up from 84 since the 1875–76 election). The number of Māori electorates was held at four. The House further decided that electorates should not have more than one representative, which led to 35 new electorates being formed, including Tauranga, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries.

The electorate includes Tauranga, Mt Maunganui and Omanu Beach, but excluding Hairini, Maungatapu, Matapihi and Welcome Bay.

Tauranga electorate was created for the 1881 election, which determined the composition of the 8th Parliament. Initially, it existed until the 1890 election and during that time, it was represented by four MPs.

The 1881 election was hotly contested. Four candidates were nominated: George Morris, who had previously represented the East Coast electorate; George Vesey Stewart, then the owner of the Bay of Plenty Times; William Kelly, who had also previously represented the East Coast electorate; and Henry Thomas Rowe, a surveyor and commission agent. Rowe announced his retirement from the contest on 6 December three days out from election day, urging his supporters to vote for Stewart instead. The unofficial results were released the day after the election (Saturday, 10 December) and Morris had a majority of 13 votes over Stewart, with the official declaration to be made on 12 December. This was deferred until 14 December, with Morris ahead by 10 votes. Stewart stood for the Tauranga mayoralty a few months later and was elected the town's first mayor.

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