During the second session (from 7 July to 15 September 1862) of the
3rd Parliament, the Representation Act 1862 was passed. The Act stipulated that the two-member
City of Dunedin electorate was to be abolished in 1863 and replaced with
Dunedin and Suburbs North and Dunedin and Suburbs South. Clause 9 of the Act read: The existing two members of the City of Dunedin shall thenceforth, as long as they retain their seats, be respectively members of the district of Dunedin and suburbs North and Dunedin and suburbs South, in manner following, that is to say, the earliest elected member shall be a member for the district of Dunedin and suburbs North, and the last elected member shall be a member for the district of Dunedin and suburbs South. The first elected member was
Thomas Dick, but he resigned from the City of Dunedin electorate during 1863, so a new election had to be held to determine the representative for Dunedin and Suburbs North. The last elected member was
John Richardson, who won the
second by-election during 1862 in the City of Dunedin electorate. Richardson resigned on 12 September 1862, so a
writ was issued to elect a new member for the City of Dunedin electorate. This caused considerable confusion, as it was assumed that the electorate had ceased to exist, and the new Suburb electorates were to be established. Nevertheless, the returning officer went ahead as per the instructions given by
Governor George Grey in the writ. Following this discussion in the media, the election was not taken seriously. The nomination meeting in November 1862 was attended by "a selected audience of three electors, five boys, half-a-dozen diggers out of luck, one policeman and two reporters." Upon calling for nominations, the three electors had "an earnest discussion" and eventually resolved to put forward
James Paterson, who was duly declared elected. and being the 'latest elected member', his seat was transferred to the Dunedin and Suburbs South electorate. A second member was elected to the Dunedin and Suburbs South electorate in April 1863 –
William Reynolds. Both members served until the end of the term of the 3rd Parliament in January 1866. All this happened during the time of the
Otago gold rush, which led to a significant increase in
Otago's population. Changes to electorates reflected this situation. During this time, the
Goldfields and later
Gold Field Towns electorates were established. The electorate was abolished in 1866. At that time, the City of Dunedin electorate was re-established. The Dunedin electorates of
Caversham,
Port Chalmers and
Roslyn were all first established in 1866. The vast majority of Dunedin and Suburbs South went to the Caversham electorate.
Members of parliament The electorate was represented by two
members of parliament: ==Election results==