This dataset is the major released version of the annually released Māori constituency boundaries as at 1 January 2018, clipped to the coastline.This clipped version contains 5 Māori constituencies, excluding area outside Māori constituency, and has been created for map creation/cartographic purposes and does not fully represent the official full extent boundaries. Māori constituencies are established under the Local Electoral Act 2001 and result from the division of a region for electoral purposes.Māori constituencies are divisions of regional council areas. They are created, based on population, to be the voting areas within councils. Māori constituencies are defined at meshblock level.If a regional council decides to have a Māori constituency, the constituencies within the council are known as general constituencies and Māori constituencies.Classifications exist annually from 2005 to 2018.The boundaries of Māori constituencies may be reviewed before each three-yearly local government election. Regional councils must review their representation arrangements at least once every six years. The provisions for such reviews are contained in the Local Government Act 2002.Māori constituencies are numbered based on their corresponding regional council. Each Māori constituency has a unique four-digit code. The first two digits represent the regional council that the Māori constituency lies within. The last two digits are sequential and represent the number of Māori constituencies within a regional council. For example, the Waikato Regional Council (03) contains two Māori constituencies which are coded 0301 and 0302.In the 2018 classification two regional councils have Māori constituencies: Waikato and Bay of Plenty. The following table lists the Māori constituencies:Regional Council codeMāori constituency nameMāori constituency code03Nga Hau e Wha Maori Constituency030103 Nga Tai ki Uta Maori Constituency030204Mauao Maori Constituency040104Okurei Maori Constituency040204Kohi Maori Constituency0403Digital boundary data became freely available on 1 July 2007.
Source
Māori constituencies are based on the meshblock pattern. Non-alignment of meshblock and cadastral boundaries are one of a number of reasons for meshblock boundary adjustments. Other reasons include requests from local authorities, Local Government Commission, Electoral Representation Commission and to make census enumeration processes easier. From the meshblock pattern, higher geographies were dissolved using the dissolve tool in the Arc GIS suite. To derive the meshblock and higher geography boundaries clipped to the coastline, meshblock polygons were dissolved to exclude meshblocks with a land/water attribute of Inlet or Oceanic.
