[1] As part of the 1976 census, a large number of people failed to fill out an electoral re-registration card, and census staff had not been given the authority to insist on the card being completed.
Together with a northward shift of New Zealand's population, this resulted in five new electorates having to be created in the upper part of the North Island.
In 1996 for the first MMP election, the enlarged electorate was renamed Karapiro.
The original electorate included the following population centres: Morrinsville, Matamata, Cambridge, and Putāruru.
[5] When he retired at the 1987 election, he was succeeded by his son John Luxton.