George McCullagh Reed (1831 – 13 November 1898) was a New Zealand
presbyterian minister
Presbyterian (or presbyteral) polity is a method of church governance ("ecclesiastical polity") typified by the rule of assemblies of presbyters, or elders. Each local church is governed by a body of elected elders usually called the session or ...
,
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
and newspaper proprietor.
Reed was born in
County Monaghan
County Monaghan ( ; ga, Contae Mhuineacháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County C ...
, Ireland in about 1831.
He received his education from
Queen's College, Belfast
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, from where he graduated in 1856. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister and went to France, Switzerland, and in 1857 to
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
in Australia. From 1861, he was minister in
Ipswich, Queensland, and it was there that he married Jessie Chalmers Ranken on 6 July 1863. He resigned from the ministry in 1866.
Reed was elected to the second
Legislative Assembly of Queensland
The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembl ...
for the district of
Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...
in a
ministerial by-election
A ministerial by-election is a by-election to fill a vacancy triggered by the appointment of the sitting member of parliament (MP) as a minister in the cabinet. The requirement for new ministers to stand for re-election was introduced in the Ho ...
on 4 August 1866 and held this seat until the end of the parliamentary term on 19 June 1867.
He set up, bought, or edited many newspapers. He set up the ''Evening Star'' in
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...
in 1870.
While living in Auckland, he was elected to the
Auckland Provincial Council
The Auckland Province was a province of New Zealand from 1853 until the abolition of provincial government in 1876.
Area
The province covered roughly half of the North Island of New Zealand. It was the largest of the six initial provinces, both ...
for the Takapuna electorate, and he served from 21 November 1873 until the abolition of provincial government on 31 October 1876. He served on the executive council (10 December 1873 – 13 November 1874) and was provincial treasurer until his resignation from that post.
In 1876, he established the ''Evening News'' in
Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...
. Some months later, he purchased a morning newspaper in Dunedin, the ''Otago Guardian'', together with
George Fenwick
Sir George Fenwick (2 February 1847 – 23 September 1929) was a New Zealand newspaper proprietor and editor. He is best known for his time as manager and editor of the '' Otago Daily Times'', during which time he supported the campaign initiate ...
. The city could not sustain two morning papers and Fenwick and Reed bought their rival, the ''
Otago Daily Times'' and its weekly, the ''Otago Guardian''.
After time in Ireland as New Zealand's immigration agent, he was leader writer for ''
The Argus'' in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
before joining ''
The New Zealand Herald
''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspaper ...
'' in 1883. He moved to the United Kingdom as the ''Herald's'' correspondent, and there he set up the ''Australian Times and Anglo-New-Zealander'' together with
Robert Reid. Reed returned to Auckland and became editor of the ''Auckland Evening Bell''. In 1889, he was editor of the ''Evening Standard'' in Melbourne. In the following year, he was editor for ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
''. By 1895, he had returned to Auckland and rejoined ''The New Zealand Herald''.
Reed died in Auckland of a heart attack on 13 November 1898. He was survived by three sons, including
Vernon Reed and
John Reed, and two daughters.
He was buried in the Presbyterian section of the
Symonds Street Cemetery
Symonds Street Cemetery is a historic cemetery and park in central Auckland, New Zealand. It is in 5.8 hectares of deciduous forest on the western slope of Grafton Gully, by the corner of Symonds Street and Karangahape Road, and is crossed by th ...
.
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, George McCullagh
1831 births
1898 deaths
New Zealand journalists
New Zealand Presbyterians
People from County Monaghan
Irish emigrants to New Zealand (before 1923)
19th-century journalists
Male journalists
Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
Members of the Auckland Provincial Council
Members of Auckland provincial executive councils
Burials at Symonds Street Cemetery
Alumni of Queen's University Belfast
19th-century male writers
19th-century Australian politicians
19th-century New Zealand politicians
The Argus (Melbourne) people
The Sydney Morning Herald people