1954 New Zealand general election

Template:Short description Template:Use New Zealand English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox election The 1954 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament's 31st term. It saw the governing National Party remain in office, but with a slightly reduced majority. It also saw the debut of the new Social Credit Party, which won more than eleven percent of the vote but failed to win a seat.

Background

The National Party had formed its first administration after the 1949 elections. It had then been re-elected by a large margin amid the industrial disputes of the 1951 election. The Prime Minister, Sidney Holland, was popular in many sectors of society for his strong line against striking dockworkers and coalminers, while Labour's leader, Walter Nash, had been criticised for his failure to take a firm stand on the issue. Labour was troubled by internal disputes, with Nash subjected to an unsuccessful leadership challenge only a few months before the election.Template:Sfn For the election, the National government adopted a "steady as she goes" approach, saying that the country was in good hands and did not need any major policy realignments.

Nash tried to make the election about the issue of cost-of-living with most of Labour's campaign promises being financial policies. He frequently highlighted the fact that in 1949 National had promised to "make the pound go further" but five years on what cost £1 (20 shillings) now cost 28 shillings. Labour's campaign promises included raising the child allowance to 15 shillings a week, housing loans with only 3% interest and the introduction of a PAYE income taxation system.Template:Sfn After a slow start to his campaign, things improved for Nash towards the end of his campaign. This was evidenced by his audiences becoming more enthusiastic such as one meeting held at the Auckland Town Hall where a crowd of 10,000 impatiently telling the first speaker, trade union president Fintan Patrick Walsh, to sit down and a chant of "we want Walter" breaking out.Template:Sfn

The Social Credit campaign meetings aroused far more public interest than those of the main parties. A common public perception was Labour and National were increasingly close to each other on policies compared to the substantial policy differences in the 1930s. In an attempt to counter the public enthusiasm to Social Credit, Labour promised mid-campaign to make the state the sole authority for the issue of credit and currency.Template:Sfn

The election

The date for the main 1954 elections was 13 November. 1,209,670 people were registered to vote, and turnout was 91.4%. The number of seats being contested was 80, a number which had been fixed since 1902.

The following new (or reconstituted) electorates were introduced in 1954: Heretaunga, Template:NZ electorate link, Rotorua, Stratford, Waipa and Waitemata.Template:Sfn Two candidates, both called John Stewart, came second; in Template:NZ electorate link for National and in Template:NZ electorate link for Labour.Template:Sfn

MPs retiring in 1954

Ten MPs retired at the election, see cartoon.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Party		Name	Electorate
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Independent	William Sheat	Patea
rowspan=8 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	National	William Bodkin	Central Otago
Wilfred Fortune		Eden
Andy Sutherland		Hauraki
Chales Bowden		Karori
Alfred Murdoch		Marsden
Edward Gordon		Rangitīkei
Clifton Webb		Rodney
Walter Broadfoot		Waitomo
rowspan=3 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Labour	Robert McKeen	Island Bay
Bob Semple		Miramar
Charles Chapman		Wellington Central

Paddy Kearins also left parliament at the election. His electorate of Template:NZ electorate link was abolished and he failed to gain selection to stand for Labour in the replacement electorate of Template:NZ electorate link.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Two Labour MPs had announced their intention to retire at the 1954 election (Harry Combs MP for Onslow and Arthur Osborne MP for Onehunga) but died before the end of the parliament.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Results

The 1954 election saw the governing National Party re-elected with a ten-seat margin, a drop from the twenty-seat margin it previously held. National won forty-five seats to the Labour Party's thirty-five. The popular vote was much closer, however, with the two parties separated by only 0.2% (1,602 votes). On preliminary results Labour was leading in 37 seats and was actually ahead of National in the popular vote by 0.33%.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> No seats were won by minor party candidates or by independents, but the new Social Credit Party managed to win 11.2% of the vote, and it can be argued that Social Credit saved the National Government by providing an alternative to Labour and so minimising the two-party swing.Template:Sfn Nash argued that Social Credit's impact on the election was being a spoiler, claiming Labour was denied victory because of this.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

File:1954 nz parliament.svg
Election results
Party		Candidates	Total votes	Percentage	Seats won	change
Template:Party color cell	National	79	485,630	44.3	45	−5
Template:Party color cell	Labour	80	484,028	44.1	35	+5
Template:Party color cell	Social Credit	79	122,573	11.2	0	±0
Template:Party color cell	Communist	8	1,134	0.1	0	±0
Template:Party color cell	Independents	9	3,474	0.3	0	±0
Total		255	1,096,877		80

Votes summary

<section begin="Electorate results" />The table below shows the results of the 1954 general election:

Key

Template:NZ electorate result start |-

|colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" | General electorates

|- Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change |-

| Hauraki
| style="background-color:Template:Party color;" |
| style="text-align:center;" | Andy Sutherland
| style="background-color:Template:Party color;" |
| style="text-align:center;background-color:Template:New Zealand National Party/meta/shading;" | Arthur Kinsella
| style="text-align:right;" | 2,659
| style="background-color:Template:Party color;" |
| style="text-align:center;" | Brevat William Dynes

|- Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold |-

|colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" | Māori electorates

|- Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold |}

Table footnotes

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References

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