Mayor of Invercargill

Mayor of Invercargill
Incumbent Tim Shadbolt since 1998
Style	Sir
Appointer	Elected
Inaugural holder	William Wood
Formation	1871
Deputy	Nobby Clark
Website	icc.govt.nz/your-council/

The Mayor of Invercargill is the head of the municipal government of Invercargill, New Zealand, and presides over the Invercargill City Council. The mayor is directly elected using a First Past the Post electoral system. The current mayor is Tim Shadbolt, who is also the longest-serving mayor for Invercargill (23 consecutive years as of 2022). There have been 43 mayors so far.

History[]

Invercargill was first proclaimed a municipality on 28 June 1871. On 26 August of that year, the first mayoral elections were held, and William Wood was elected as first mayor, defeating J.W. Mitchell by 191 to 140 votes. Unlike other municipalities, the mayor has always been elected "at large" (i.e., by the public), rather than (as for example in Christchurch) the councillors choosing one of their group.^[1][2]

Originally, mayoral elections were held on an annual basis. From 1915, mayors were elected for a two-year term; and, as of 1935, the mayoral term was extended to three years.^[3]

When resigned the mayoralty in 1887, council appointed as mayor until an extraordinary election could be held. This was not done in strict accordance with the law,^[4] and Blacke is not included in official lists of Mayors of Invercargill.

Greater Invercargill was created on 10 January 1910 during Charles Steven Longuet's reign.^[5] Longuet was succeeded by William Ott, who was twice elected unopposed^[6][7] and did not seek re-election in 1912.^[8]

Invercargill was proclaimed a city on 1 March 1930 during 's mayoralty.^[5]

There has been one woman mayor so far – Eve Poole.^[5] She has also been the only Jewish mayor, though earlier mayor Abraham Wachner was also of Jewish descent. A library building is named after Poole.^[9] She died in office in 1992. Tim Shadbolt was invited to run in the resulting by-election and claimed a surprising victory.^[10] Shadbolt is the current mayor.^[11] The 2010 election win made Shadbolt the longest-serving mayor in New Zealand, with this being his 8th mayoral term (his 6th term in Invercargill).^[12]

Members of Parliament[]

Seven former mayors have also been Members of Parliament, and all of them represented the Invercargill electorate (the years in brackets give their term in Parliament):^[13]

• William Wood (1866–1870)
• John Cuthbertson (1873–1875)
• George Lumsden (1875–1878)
• James Walker Bain (1879–1881)
• Joseph Hatch (1884–1887)
• Josiah Hanan (1899–1925)
• Ralph Hanan (1946–1969)

List of mayors of Invercargill[]

Invercargill has had 43 mayors so far:^[5][14][15]

	Name	Term	Elections	Image
1	William Wood	1871–1873	1871 • 1872
2	George Lumsden	1873–1874	1873
3		1874–1875	1874
4	John Walker Mitchell	1875–1876	1875
5	John Cuthbertson	1876–1877	1876
6	Joseph Hatch	1877–1878	1877
(2)	George Lumsden, 2nd period	1878–1879	1878
7		1879–1880	1879
8		1880–1881	1880
9		1881–1882	1881
10		1882–1883	1882
11		1883–1884	1883
12		1884–1885	1884
13		1885–1886	1885
14		1886–1887	1886
–	[note 1]	1887
15		1887–1888	1887 by-election 1887
16	Thomas Fleming	1888–1889	1888
(4)	John Walker Mitchell, 2nd period	1889–1890	1889
17		1890–1891	1890
18	James Walker Bain	1891–1892	1891
19	Duncan McFarlane	1892–1893	1892
20		1893–1894	1893
21	William Benjamin Scandrett[16]	1894–1895	1894
22		1895–1896	1895
23	Josiah Hanan	1896–1897	1896
24	[17]	1897–1898	1897
25	John Stead	1898–1899	1898
26		1899–1901	1899
27	Charles Stephen Longuet	1901–1903[18]	1901 • 1902
(12)	George Froggatt, 2nd period	1903–1904[19]	1903
(21)	William Benjamin Scandrett, 2nd period	1904–1909	1904 • 1905 • 1906 1907 • 1908
(27)	Charles Steven Longuet, 2nd period	1909–1910	1909
28	William Ott	1910–1912	1910 • 1911
(21)	William Benjamin Scandrett, 3rd period	1912–1913	1912
(19)	Duncan McFarlane, 2nd period	1913–1917	1913 • 1914 • 1915
(25)	John Stead, 2nd period	1917–1921	1917 • 1919
29	John F. Lillicrap	1921–1923	1921
30	[20]	1923–1927	1923 • 1925
31	John Miller	1927–1929	1927
32		1929–1931	1929
(31)	John Miller, 2nd period	1931–1938	1931 • 1933 1935 • 1938
33	J. Ralph Hanan	1938–1941	1938 by-election
34		1941–1942	1941
35	Abraham Wachner	1942–1950	1942 by-election 1944 • 1947
36		1950
37		1950–1953	1950
38	Adam Adamson[21]	1953–1962	1953 • 1956 • 1959
39	Neil Watson	1962–1971	• •
40		1971–1983	• 1974 •
41	Eve Poole	1983–1992	1983 • 1986 1989 • 1992
42	Tim Shadbolt	1993–1995	1993 by-election
43	David Harrington	1995–1998	1995
(42)	Tim Shadbolt, 2nd period	1998–present	1998 • 2001 • 2004 2007 • 2010 • 2013 2016 • 2019

List of deputy mayors of Invercargill[]

References[]

Sources[]

• Cyclopedia Company Limited (1905). The Cyclopedia of New Zealand : Otago & Southland Provincial Districts. Christchurch. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
• Watt, John Oman Percival (1971). Centenary of Invercargill Municipality 1871–1971. Invercargill: Times Printing Service.