Public Art Around The World

More Than Just The Plaque

Reed Monument

Reed Monument
Reed Monument

Public Art: Reed Monument

Sculptor: © W. Parkinson

Description: The Reed Monument is a memorial to early New Zealand journalist George Mccullagh Reed. The fountain is made from Timaru limestone and features a statue of a young girl on top which has been removed several times over the years due to vandalism.

Reed Monument

Unveiled: 1901

Location: The Reed Monument can be found in Albert Park, Auckland, New Zealand.

Inscriptions :

Erected in loving remembrance of G.M Reed B.A. of Auckland, journalist. For the future in the distance and the good that we can do. 1901.

This statue was presented by W. Parkinson and Co. Sculptors Auckland 1901

So Who Was Mr George Mccullagh Reed?: Mr Reed was born in County Monaghan in Ireland c.1831. After graduating from the Queen’s College in Belfast he was ordained as a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church. In 1858 he headed to Australia, where he eventually married. In 1870, he left for New Zealand where he began his new life as a newspaperman. 

He started his new career by establishing the Auckland “Evening Star” newspaper. Six years later he sold out his interest and founded the “Guardian” newspaper in Dunedin and purchased the “Otago Daily Times”. With continual itchy feet, he sold his interests in Dunedin and took up a position in Ireland as an emigration agent for New Zealand during Sir George Grey’s administration. In 1884 he started the “Anglo-New Zealander” newspaper in London and also became an English correspondent for the “New Zealand Herald” and several other newspapers.

By 1886 he was on the move again, this time returning to New Zealand where he became editor of the Auckland “Evening Bell”. Three years later he moved to Melbourne to work at the “Evening Standard,” but that didn’t last long. A year later (1890) he became the lead writer for the “Sydney Morning Herald”. In 1895 Reed returned to Auckland and became the lead writer for the “New Zealand Herald” under the pen-name ‘Colonus’. On the 13th of November, 1898 George Mccullagh Reed died suddenly of a heart attack.

Trivia: In 1883, Reed, as an April Fool’s joke, reported that Noah’s Ark had been discovered intact in a glacier on Mt Ararat. Needless to say, his story was picked up and reprinted by newspapers all over the world.

Reed Monument

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

It is main inner container footer text