The 1881 New Zealand general election was held on 8 and 9 December in the Māori and European electorates, respectively, to elect 95 MPs to the 8th session of the New Zealand Parliament.
1881 was the first time a general election was held under universal male suffrage; all MPs were elected in single-member electorates; and the country quota was introduced, allowing rural electorates to have 25% fewer voters than urban electorates. Beginning with the 1881 election, all elections in European electorates were to be held on the same day, a measure not introduced for Māori electorates until 1951.
1881 electoral redistribution The previous electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1875 for the 1875–1876 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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and . In addition, two electorates that had previously been abolished were recreated: and .
These changes necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries. Only six electorates remained unchanged: , , , , , and .
The electoral distribution was the first that formally acknowledged the existence of a country quota, where country electorates contained 25% fewer voters than town electorates.
The election The 1881 election was held on Thursday, 8 December, in the Māori electorates and on Friday, 9 December, in the European electorates to elect a total of 95 MPs to the 8th Parliament. A total number of 120,972 (66.5%) voters turned out to vote. In 11 seats there was only one candidate. 36 and 55 seats were in the North Island and South Island, respectively, plus the 4 Māori electorates.
The incumbent government led by John Hall retained office having support from 45 members with 39 "Greyites" (supporters of George Grey) and 11 Independents not affiliated with either faction.
Results The following table shows the successful candidate for each electorate. Member Electorate Affiliation MP's term Greyite Fourth Greyite Second Greyite First Auckland East Greyite Fourth Auckland North Independent First Auckland West Independent First Conservative Fifth Greyite Second Conservative Second Independent First Independent Liberal First Greyite Second Conservative First Conservative First Christchurch South Greyite First Conservative Fourth Conservative First Greyite First Dunedin Central Greyite First Dunedin East Independent First Dunedin South Independent First Dunedin West Conservative Fourth Greyite Fourth Greyite Second Greyite Third Conservative Sixth Conservative First Franklin North Greyite Second Franklin South Greyite Third Conservative First Independent First Conservative First Conservative Third Conservative First Conservative First Conservative Fifth Conservative Second Conservative Second Greyite Second Conservative First Greyite Second Conservative First Conservative Second Conservative Fourth Independent Sixth Conservative First Greyite First Greyite First Conservative Third Greyite Third Greyite First Greyite Second Conservative Fifth Conservative Fourth Greyite Third Greyite Third Greyite Second Conservative First Greyite Eighth Rangitikei Independent Liberal First Greyite Third Greyite Second Conservative Fifth Greyite Third Conservative First Greyite First Conservative Second Conservative Second Conservative Second Conservative First Independent Fourth Conservative Second Greyite Third Greyite Fifth Conservative Second Conservative Second Conservative Second Greyite Third Conservative Second Independent Liberal First Wairarapa North Conservative Third Wairarapa South Conservative First Greyite First Greyite First Conservative Second Conservative Fifth Conservative Second Conservative First Greyite First Wanganui Conservative Second Greyite Second X-01Eastern Maori Conservative Third X-02Northern Maori Greyite Second X-03Southern Maori Greyite Fourth X-04Western Maori Greyite Second
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