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New Plymouth (electorate)

New Zealand electorate

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ7010994 ↗
Source-derived summary

New Plymouth is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate. It was first created for the 1st New Zealand Parliament in 1853 and has existed since, with one 32-year interruption. The electorate was initially called Town of New Plymouth.

The electorate is currently held by David MacLeod for National. He defeated Labour’s Glen Bennett in the 2023 general election by 6,991 votes.

Population centres

In the 1927 electoral redistribution, the North Island gained a further electorate from the South Island due to faster population growth. Five electorates were abolished, two former electorates, including New Plymouth, were re-established, and three electorates were created for the first time. At the 2014 election, the electorate's southern boundary would move south to include Ōpunake. At the 2025 boundary review, the boundary with Taranaki-King Country would be adjusted to include Waitara wholly within the electorate.

The electorate includes the following population centres:

New Plymouth

Bell Block

Waitara

Ōpunake

Ōakura

Ōkato

Egmont Village

Rahotu

History

The electorate was originally the Town of New Plymouth from 1853 to 1879.

Editorial summary

“New Plymouth (electorate)” enters the record as new Zealand electorate. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Plymouth, electorate and Zealand can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1853, 2023, 1927, 2014—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1853. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Plymouth, electorate and Zealand.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“New Plymouth (electorate)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Plymouth, electorate and Zealand provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7010994. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1853, 2023, 1927 and 2014.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “New Plymouth (electorate)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow New Plymouth (electorate) primary sources, New Plymouth (electorate) archive and Plymouth research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “New Plymouth (electorate)”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “New Plymouth (electorate)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.