Avon (New Zealand electorate)

Avon is a former New Zealand parliamentary electorate. It was created for the 1861 general election and existed until 1996. It was represented by 13 Members of Parliament and was held by Independents, Liberal Party or Labour Party representatives.

Population centres
The electorate was in Christchurch, New Zealand, named after the Avon River. For the 1887 by-election, polling booths were in Riccarton and Papanui. For the 1887 general election, polling booths were in Papanui, Bright's Road, Spreydon and New Brighton. For the, polling booths were in Papanui, Richmond, Belfast, Ohoka and Clarkville.

History
The electorate was created in 1861, and existed continuously until 1996, when with MMP it was absorbed into the new Christchurch East electorate.

Alfred Richard Creyke stood in the 1861 general election (held on 1 February) in the Avon electorate for Parliament, whilst William Thomson stood in the same electorate for the Canterbury Provincial Council. Thomson proposed Creyke and vice versa; both were elected unopposed. Creyke thus became the first representative. Creyke resigned from Parliament on 21 April 1862.

Creyke was succeeded by William Thomson, who was elected in the 11 June and took his oath on 30 July 1862. He retired on 27 January 1866. Thomson was succeeded by Crosbie Ward, who won the against Charles Wellington Bishop (brother of Edward Bishop). Ward resigned in the following year.

William Reeves won the resulting by-election. He resigned in the following year. William Rolleston represented the electorate from the resulting by-election (elected unopposed) to 1884. In the 1879 general election, he was returned unopposed. Rolleston did not stand in the Avon electorate in the, but (successfully) contested Geraldine instead.

Rolleston was succeeded by Leonard Harper in the Avon electorate. Harper resigned on 3 May 1887, and the resulting by-election was contested by Edwin Blake and William Dunlop, who received 255 and 252 votes, respectively. The 1887 general election was contested by Edwin Blake and E. G. Wright. Blake won the election by a good margin. In the, Edwin Blake and George Gatonby Stead received 774 and 587 votes, respectively. At the end of the parliamentary term in 1893, Blake retired from politics.

William Tanner won the. In the previous Parliament, he had represented the electorate. Tanner was initially an independent, but joined the Liberal Party for the. In the, he was beaten by George Warren Russell in the second ballot (the voting system in place from 1908 until 1913). In the, four candidates contested the electorate, with Russell representing the liberal Ward Government, James McCombs standing as an Independent Liberal, J. O. Jamieson as an opposition candidate and W. R. Smith representing labour interests. Russell and McCombs polled 3,040 and 2,817 votes, respectively, and proceeded to the second ballot. Russell won the second ballot with 3,854 to 3,583 votes. Russell was defeated in the by Labour's Dan Sullivan. Sullivan was successful at the next eight subsequent elections. In the, he was opposed by James Neil Clarke of the National Party, who a few years later became Deputy-Mayor of Christchurch. Sullivan died in office on 8 April 1947.

Sullivan's death caused the by-election, which was won by John Mathison of the Labour Party. He was a cabinet minister from 1957 to 1960 in the Second Labour Government and retired from Parliament in 1972.

Mathison was succeeded by Mary Batchelor, who represented the electorate for five parliamentary terms. Batchelor in turn was succeeded by Larry Sutherland, who won the. He served the electorate until its abolition in 1996. He successfully contested the replacement electorate of Christchurch East in the.

Members of Parliament
Key

1947 by-election
Robertson was a member of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) but his nomination was refused endorsement by DLP leader John A. Lee.