St Albans was a parliamentary electorate in Christchurch, New Zealand from 1881 to 1890, then from 1946 to 1996.
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The electorate was centred on the Christchurch suburb of St Albans.
The electorate was first created for the 1881 general election, held on 9 December.[1]
John Evans Brown contested the electorate with J. L. Wilson and A. W. O'Neill. They received 218, 168 and 85 votes, respectively. Brown was declared elected.[2] Brown did not stand for re-election in the 1884 general election.[3]
In 1884 general election, held on 22 July, Francis James Garrick successfully stood for the electorate against two other candidates and obtained a comfortable victory, gaining 396 out of 477 votes.[4] Garrick stood again in the electorate in the 1887 general election, against William Pember Reeves. At the election on 26 September, Reeves and Garrick received 802 and 634 votes, respectively. With a majority of 164 votes, Reeves was the successful candidate.[5][6] The electorate was abolished at the end of the parliamentary term in 1890 and Reeves successfully contested the Christchurch electorate.
The electorate was recreated in 1946.[7] Jack Watts from the National Party was the representative from 1946 to 1957, when he successfully contested the Fendalton electorate. St Albans went to Neville Pickering of the Labour Party, who lost the electorate at the next election in 1960 to National's Herbert John Walker. Walker represented St Albans until 1969, when he successfully contested the Papanui electorate.
St Albans was won by Labour's Roger Drayton in the 1969 general election. He retired after three terms, and the 1978 general election was won by Labour's David Caygill, who held the electorate until it was abolished in 1996.
The electorate was represented by eight Members of Parliament:[7]
Key
| Election | Winner | |
|---|---|---|
| 1881 election | John Evans Brown | |
| 1884 election | Francis James Garrick | |
| 1887 election | William Pember Reeves | |