the Alliance and Peters, the two proved incompatible, and Peters established the New Zealand First party. At the time when Myles and McIntyre had split from National, they had entertained hopes that Peters (and possibly Michael Laws or Cam Campion) would join them, and were therefore disappointed at the failure of talks between Peters and the Alliance. The possibility of leaving the Alliance and merging with New Zealand First was discussed, but deep divisions emerged within the party about this possibility. In the end, Myles (along with party president Malcolm Wright and central regional chairman Trevor Jans) opted to leave the Liberals and join New Zealand First. MacIntyre remained with the Liberals for some time afterwards but he was defeated in 1993 and did not enter Parliament again and following the 1996 election where he was a list candidate for the Alliance, he then retired from politics becoming a company director. In 1996, leadership of the Liberals fell to Frank Grover, who had been elected to Parliament as an Alliance list MP in the 1996 election. Grover defeated former Auckland City Councillor Sue Corbett for the Liberal leadership. In 1998 the party had declined to just over 100 members and was eventually dissolved, with its sole MP and remaining members simply becoming members of the Alliance as a whole. This was preceded by the Alliance changing its constitution in November 1997 to make it obligatory for constituent member parties have at least 500 members. The Liberal Party had well over this number at the time Myles defected to New Zealand First in 1993, but swathes of members joined him leaving the party membership decimated. MacIntyre supported the decision but was "a little sad" to see the party wind up but said it was "by far the most realistic option". Grover himself eventually rejected the Alliance, and shortly before the 1999 election, defected to the Christian Heritage Party, giving it its first seat in Parliament. He did not secure re-election, however. References Liberal 2 Political parties established in 1991 1991 establishments in New Zealand Political parties disestablished in 1998 1998 disestablishments in New Zealand Liberal parties in New Zealand