Kōrero: Local and regional government

In this illustration from an 1894 publication, a group of well-dressed women in Devonport, Auckland, gather outside their borough council chambers, preparing to vote in the 1893 general election. The Municipal Corporations Act 1876 gave the vote to all property owners, male and female, although women could not vote in general elections until 1893. In this election voters in Onehunga, Auckland, elected the first woman mayor in the British Empire, Elizabeth Yates.