The previous electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1875 for the 1875–1876 election. In the six years since, New Zealand's European population had increased by 65%. In the 1881 electoral redistribution, the House of Representatives increased the number of European representatives to 91. The number of Māori electorates was held at four. The House further decided that electorates should not have more than one representative, which led to 35 new electorates being formed, including Waipawa, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries. The legislation defined the area as follows:
The Waipawa electorate was established for the. William Cowper Smith was the first representative. He was re-elected in. From to 1890 Smith represented the Woodville electorate, which only existed for those three years. The representative for Waipawa for the period from 1887 to 1890 was Thomas Tanner; he retired at the end of the parliamentary term. Tanner was succeeded by Smith in the ; Smith retired at the end of the parliamentary term. Charles Hall represented Waipawa for the Liberal Party from to 1896, when he was defeated by George Hunter. Hall in turn defeated Hunter in the and then served the electorate until 1911, when he retired. The was won by Hunter, who continued to represent the electorate until 1930. An interesting situation arose in. D. B. Kent was originally announced as an independent Liberal-Labour candidate. He was then approached by the United Party and became their official candidate. The local supporters of the United Party had not been consulted on this, and did not support Kent, but backed Ernest Albert Goodger instead. Goodger thus stood as an independent United candidate. This split the United Party vote, but Hunter again won with an absolute majority. Hunter's death on 20 August 1930 caused the, which was won by Albert Jull. Jull was confirmed by the voters in the, but was defeated in by Max Christie. Jull in turn defeated Christie in 1938, but he died on 24 September 1940. Jull was succeeded by Cyril Harker, who won the. Harker was confirmed by the voters in the. He served until the end of the parliamentary term in 1946, when the electorate was abolished.
Members of Parliament
The electorate was represented by seven Members of Parliament: Key
