Wallace (New Zealand electorate)

Wallace was a New Zealand parliamentary electorate. It was established in 1858, the first election held in 1859, and existed until 1996. For a time, it was represented by two members. In total, there were 18 Members of Parliament from the Wallace electorate.

The initial 24 New Zealand electorates were defined by Governor George Grey in March 1853, based on the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 that had been passed by the British government. The Constitution Act also allowed the House of Representatives to establish new electorates, and this was first done in 1858, when four new electorates were formed by splitting existing electorates. Wallace was one of those four electorates, and it was established by splitting the Dunedin Country electorate. Settlements in the initial area were Invercargill, Gore, Mataura, and Riverton.

This electorate was in the rural part of Southland.

The first election was held on 30 November 1859 during the term of the 2nd New Zealand Parliament, and was won by Dillon Bell.

For the term of the 3rd New Zealand Parliament (1861–66), it was a two-member electorate. From 1866 to its dissolution in 1996, it was a single-member electorate.

In 1938 additional areas added from Central Otago and the West Coast made Wallace the biggest (non-Māori) electorate in New Zealand.

In the 1996 election, the first MMP election, the electorate was combined with the adjacent Clutha electorate into the Clutha-Southland electorate.

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