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1954 New Zealand general election
elected members →
All 80 seats in the House of Representatives ; 41 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	1,096,877 (91.4%)
	Results of the election.
Prime Minister before election; Sidney Holland; National	Subsequent Prime Minister ; Sidney Holland; National

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. 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.

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, Manukau, Rotorua, Stratford, Waipa and Waitemata.^[1] Two candidates, both called John Stewart, came second; in Auckland Central for National and in Eden for Labour.^[2]

MPs retiring in 1954

Ten MPs retired at the election, see cartoon.^[3]

	Name	Electorate
Independent	William Sheat	Patea
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
Labour	Robert McKeen	Island Bay
	Bob Semple	Miramar
	Charles Chapman	Wellington Central

Paddy Kearins also left parliament at the election. His electorate of Waimarino was abolished and he failed to gain selection to stand for Labour in the replacement electorate of Rotorua.^[4] 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.^[5]^[6]

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). 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.^[7]


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

Votes summary

Popular vote

National			44.27%
Labour			44.13%
Social Credit			11.17%
Others			0.43%

Parliament seats

National			56.25%
Labour			43.75%

The table below shows the results of the 1954 general election:

Key

National Labour Independent Social Credit

Electorate results for the 1954 New Zealand general election^[8]
Electorate	Incumbent			Majority
General electorates
Ashburton		Geoff Gerard		2,292	George Glassey
Auckland Central		Bill Anderton		4,093	John Weir Stewart
Avon		John Mathison		4,955	Arthur Norman Stone
Awarua		George Herron		3,172	J P Wyatt
Bay of Plenty		Bill Sullivan		3,062	Godfrey Santon
Buller		Jerry Skinner		3,348	Derisly Manwell Carson
Central Otago		William Bodkin	Jack George	2,074	Peter John Scott
Christchurch Central		Robert Macfarlane		3,395	Oliver G. Moody
Clutha		James Roy		1,490	T A Rodgers
Dunedin Central		Phil Connolly		330	Marcus Anderson
Dunedin North		Ethel McMillan		2,791	Helen Black^[9]
Eden		Wilfred Fortune	Duncan Rae	8	John Stewart^{[nb 1]}
Egmont		Ernest Corbett		2,977	Roy Evans^[10]
Fendalton		Sidney Holland		3,004	Roy Henry McDonald
Franklin		Jack Massey		4,587	Percival Peacock
Gisborne		Harry Dudfield	Reginald Keeling	521	Harry Dudfield
Grey Lynn		Fred Hackett		4,807	Tom McGowan
Hamilton		Hilda Ross		1,430	Ben Waters
Hastings		Sydney Jones	Ted Keating	252	Sydney Jones
Hauraki		Andy Sutherland	Arthur Kinsella	2,659	Brevat William Dynes
Hawkes Bay		Cyril Harker		3,109	A Stafford
Heretaunga	New electorate		Phil Holloway	5,058	Allan McCready
Hobson		Sidney Smith		2,584	Cecil William Elvidge
Hurunui		William Gillespie		2,395	Norman Kirk
Hutt		Walter Nash		3,681	Clevedon Costello
Invercargill		Ralph Hanan		943	William Denham
Island Bay		Robert McKeen	Arnold Nordmeyer	3,824	John Maurice Whitta
Karori		Charles Bowden	Jack Marshall	1,811	Jim Bateman
Lyttelton		Harry Lake		24	Tom McGuigan^{[nb 2]}
Manawatu		Matthew Oram		2,228	Patrick Kelliher
Manukau	New electorate		Leon Götz	3,072	Cyril Stamp
Marlborough		Tom Shand		1,635	George Allan Turner
Marsden		Alfred Murdoch	Don McKay	872	Mervyn Allan Hosking ^{[nb 3]}
Miramar		Bob Semple	Bill Fox	1,527	Robert John McConnell
Mornington		Wally Hudson		3,886	Walter MacDougall
Mt Albert		Warren Freer		3,226	Robert Muldoon
Napier		Peter Tait	Jim Edwards	720	Peter Tait
Nelson		Edgar Neale		717	Stan Whitehead
New Plymouth		Ernest Aderman		1,178	Clarence Robert Parker
North Shore		Dean Eyre		1,395	Arthur Faulkner
Oamaru		Thomas Hayman		1,358	J H Rapson
Onehunga		Hugh Watt		4,389	Alfred E. Allen
Onslow		Henry May		519	Wilfred Fortune
Otahuhu		Leon Götz	James Deas	1,806	Leonard Bradley
Otaki		Jimmy Maher		963	Ernie Langford
Pahiatua		Keith Holyoake		3,519	Ronald Bell
Palmerston North		Blair Tennent	Philip Skoglund	346	Blair Tennant
Patea		William Sheat	Roy Jack	662	Benjamin Winchcombe
Petone		Mick Moohan		4,211	Fanny Elizabeth Soward
Ponsonby		Ritchie Macdonald		3,948	Harold Barry
Raglan		Hallyburton Johnstone		857	James Harrison Wilson
Rangitikei		Edward Gordon	Norman Shelton	2,679	Stephen Malcolm Roberton
Remuera		Ronald Algie		3,544	Bob Tizard
Riccarton		Angus McLagan		4,343	Balfour Grieve Dingwall
Rodney		Clifton Webb	Jack Scott	3,270	Arthur Hellyn
Roskill		John Rae		1,652	Elizabeth Morris
Rotorua	New electorate		Ray Boord	822	Percy Allen
St Albans		Jack Watts		608	Mick Connelly
St Kilda		Jim Barnes		114	Fred Jones
Selwyn		John McAlpine		2,521	Daniel Clinton
Stratford	New electorate		Thomas Murray	2,966	Brian Edgar Richmond
Sydenham		Mabel Howard		5,560	Alma Schumacher
Tamaki		Eric Halstead		1,986	Pat Curran
Tauranga		George Walsh		3,448	Oliver Liddell
Timaru		Clyde Carr		1,423	Vic Wilson
Waikato		Geoffrey Sim		4,698	Albert Clifford Tucker
Waimate		(vacant)^{[nb 4]}	Alfred Davey	1,438	Neville Pickering
Waipa	New electorate		Stan Goosman	4,435	Harold Francis Gallagher
Wairarapa		Bert Cooksley		1,691	Bob Wilkie^[13]
Waitakere		Rex Mason		3,424	Jim McAllister
Waitemata	New electorate		Norman King	387	Hubert Morrison
Waitomo		Walter Broadfoot	David Seath	1,480	Vic Haines
Wallace		Tom Macdonald		4,466	J W Cleary
Wanganui		Joe Cotterill		305	Jack Rumbold
Wellington Central		Charles Chapman	Frank Kitts	627	Allan Highet
Westland		Jim Kent		3,605	Mark Wallace
Māori electorates
Eastern Maori		Tiaki Omana		3,094	Claude Anaru^[14]
Northern Maori		Tapihana Paikea		4,435	Tono Waetford
Southern Maori		Eruera Tirikatene		2,864	Turi Carroll
Western Maori		Iriaka Rātana		6,637	William Rakeipoho Bennett^[15]

Table footnotes

^ John Stewart was first on election night, but lost when special votes were included
^ Tom McGuigan was first on election night, but lost when special votes were included
^ National deselected the sitting MP (Alfred Murdoch) (q.v.) in favour of William Vallance; then Vallance had tax problems and was replaced by Don McKay. When Vallance ran as an independent candidate, the vote-splitting almost cost National the seat.^[11]
^ David Campbell Kidd, the National Party MP for Waimate, died less than two months before the election, leaving his seat vacant.^[12]

Notes

^ Norton 1988, pp. 7–9.
^ Norton 1988, pp. 193, 220.
^ "The First Eleven (retiring MPs)". National Library of New Zealand.
^ "Party Influence Alleged In Candidate's Selection". The Evening Post. 2 October 1954.
^ "Mr. H. E. Combs, M.P., Dead". The Evening Post. 12 June 1954. p. 13.
^ "Mr Osborne Dies After Long Illness". The New Zealand Herald. 16 November 1953. p. 10.
^ Gustafson 1986, p. 66.
^ Norton 1988, pp. ?.
^ Norton 1988, p. 214.
^ Norton 1988, p. 222.
^ Gustafson 1986, p. 235.
^ Wilson 1985, p. 210.
^ Espiner, Guyon (3 March 2012). "Profile: Labour deputy Grant Robertson". New Zealand Listener. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
^ Gustafson 1986, p. 353.
^ Gustafson 1986, p. 355.

References

Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years : A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00177-6.
Norton, Clifford (1988). New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946–1987: Occasional Publications No 1, Department of Political Science. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington. ISBN 0-475-11200-8.
Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.