When reconstituted in 1890 the northern boundary was north of Papakura, and (with the growth of Auckland) now excluded Papatoetoe.
One of the first MPs, Marmaduke Nixon was killed in action in 1864 whilst leading an assault on a Māori village during the Invasion of the Waikato, forcing the 1864 by-election.
[9] Benjamin Harris defeated the future Prime Minister William Massey in 1893, but the 1896 contest had the opposite outcome.
[10] From 1896 to 1925 Franklin was represented by the Reform Party's Massey, known as Farmer Bill, the Prime Minister from 1912 to 1925.
The party's support of monetary reform also resonated with rural farmers who had been seeing low prices for produce during the Great Depression.
[14] Key Independent Conservative Liberal Reform Country Party National Table footnotes: