Vernon Reed
Vernon Reed | |
---|---|
Vernon Reed in 1910 | |
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Bay of Islands | |
In office 17 November 1908 – 8 May 1915 | |
Preceded by | Robert Houston |
Succeeded by | William Stewart |
In office 19 March 1917 – 17 November 1922 | |
Preceded by | William Stewart |
Succeeded by | Allen Bell |
Member of the New Zealand Legislative Council | |
In office 16 June 1924 – 15 June 1931 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Auckland, New Zealand | 7 May 1871
Died | 26 May 1963 92) | (aged
Nationality | New Zealander |
Political party | Liberal Party, then Reform Party |
Other political affiliations |
National Party |
Relations | George McCullagh Reed (father) Sir John Reed (brother) |
Alma mater | University of Sydney |
Vernon Herbert Reed (7 May 1871 – 26 May 1963) was a Liberal Party and from 1912 a Reform Party member of parliament in New Zealand. He was later a member of the Legislative Council.
Early life
Reed was a son of George McCullagh Reed, a newspaper proprietor, and Jessie Chalmers Reed (née Ranken). He was born in Auckland, where his father had moved to in circa 1870 after several years in Queensland, Australia.[1] His brother was John Reed.[2]
Reed received his education at Victoria College, Jersey, Dulwich College, London, and the University of Sydney, New South Wales.[3] He was in England from 1878 to 1887. In 1889, he joined the Daily Telegraph and in 1891 moved to The Sydney Morning Herald where he also stayed for two years. He moved to Kawakawa in the Bay of Islands at the end of 1893 or 1895 (sources differ) and commenced legal studies.[3] There, he became clerk and treasurer to the Bay of Islands County.[3][4]
Reed played cricket as a batter and bowler, representing both Dulwich College in 1886 and the Bay of Islands in 1897.[5][6] He also played rugby union as a forward and represented Auckland Province in 1889, Victoria in 1890, New South Wales Colony in 1891 and 1892 and the Hawke's Bay Province in 1895.[7] While in the Hawke's Bay, Reed captained the Waipawa Branch Union.[3][8]
Political career
Parliament of New Zealand | ||||
Years | Term | Electorate | Party | |
1908–1911 | 17th | Bay of Islands | Liberal | |
1911–1912 | 18th | Bay of Islands | Liberal | |
1912–1914 | Changed allegiance to: | Reform | ||
1914–1915 | 19th | Bay of Islands | Reform | |
1917–1919 | 19th | Bay of Islands | Reform | |
1919–1922 | 20th | Bay of Islands | Reform |
Reed won the Bay of Islands electorate in the 1908 general election as a candidate of the Liberal Party.[9] The 1911 election resulted in significant losses for the Liberal Party and Joseph Ward's government survived a no-confidence motion on the casting vote of the speaker only. Ward chose to resign, though, and made way for a new liberal Prime Minister, Thomas Mackenzie.[10][11] Reed expected to be part of the new cabinet and the media discussed that he might be appointed Attorney-General due to his legal background.[12] Reed was invited to cabinet, but he did not join because the majority of the cabinet did not support his views of freehold.[13] When the Mackenzie government faced a no-confidence vote in July 1912, Reed voted with the opposition, thus effectively joining the Reform Party.[14]
Reed's switch to Reform caused problems in the 1914 election. George Wilkinson had been the Reform candidate in the Bay of Islands electorate in 1911, he was keen to represent Reform in that electorate in 1914, and he had the backing of the local electorate committee.[15] Reed also wanted to run for Reform, and as he had the backing of the party head office, he was declared the official Reform candidate.[16] Reed narrowly won the election against Te Rangi Hīroa of the Liberal Party, with Wilkinson coming third.[17] Bill Veitch, at the time a United Labour Party MP in Wanganui, claimed that Wilkinson had been under immense pressure from the Reform Party not to contest the Bay of Islands election, and that William Massey had promised him a seat in the Legislative Council in return,[18] an allegation later picked up by other media outlets but also implicating Reed in the affair.[19]
This complaint was elevated to a formal election petition in April 1915 by Kawakawa resident Edward Evans, who engaged a King's Counsel, John Findlay, and a solicitor, Bill Endean, as his counsel. Reed used his brother, also a King's Counsel, as his counsel. The primary complaint was that Reed had, through an intermediary, tried to convince Wilkinson to retire by promising him a seat on the Legislative Council, and to reimburse him for his election campaign expenses. On 8 May 1915, the petition was upheld Justice Chapman and Justice Hosking, the election declared void, and Reed barred from standing in another election for one year.[20][21] Since 1913, there have been over 100 by-elections held in New Zealand, and this was one of only five cases where a general election was declared void by the courts.[22]
The resulting by-election was won by William Stewart in June 1915.[23] Reed won the electorate again in 1917 after Stewart's resignation, and was defeated in 1922.[24][25]
He was later appointed a member of the Legislative Council, from 1924 to 1931.[26] In 1932, he hosted the Governor-General, The Viscount Bledisloe, and showed him the run-down and forgotten Busby house where the Treaty of Waitangi had been signed in 1840.[27] The Viscount Bledisloe purchased the estate and gifted it to the nation; the Treaty House has since been registered by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust as a Category I historic place with registration number 6.[28] Reed later wrote a book about the Bledisloe gift.
In 1935, he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.[29] Reed joined the National Party and was one of the Auckland agitators against Adam Hamilton and for Charles Wilkinson.[30]
Bibliography
- Reed, Vernon Herbert (1945). Historic Waitangi. Waitangi National Trust.
- Reed, Vernon Herbert (1957). The Gift of Waitangi: A History of the Bledisloe Gift. Auckland: A.H. & A.W. Reed.
Notes
- ↑ Rudman, Brian C. "George McCullagh Reed". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved December 2011.
- ↑ Scholefield, Guy, ed. (1940). A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography : M–Addenda (PDF) II. Wellington: Department of Internal Affairs. pp. 210f. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Cyclopedia Company Limited (1902). "Mr. Vernon Herbert Reed". The Cyclopedia of New Zealand : Auckland Provincial District. Christchurch: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ Cyclopedia Company Limited (1902). "Reed, Vernon Herbert". The Cyclopedia of New Zealand : Auckland Provincial District. Christchurch: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ "Tonbridge School v Dulwich College". cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
- ↑ "Athletic Sports". The New Zealand Herald. 20 April 1897. p. 6. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
- ↑ "Football". Hawke's Bay Herald. 12 June 1895. p. 3. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
- ↑ "Football". Hawke's Bay Herald. 13 June 1895. p. 3. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
- ↑ Wilson 1985, p. 228.
- ↑ Bassett, Michael. "Ward, Joseph George". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
- ↑ Brooking, Tom. "Mackenzie, Thomas Noble". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ↑ "The Party's Choice". Auckland Star. XLIII (72). 23 March 1912. p. 5. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ "Mr. Vernon Reed's Position". The Evening Post. LXXXIV (26). 30 July 1912. p. 3. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ "The Ministry Defeated". The New Zealand Herald XLIX (15039). 8 July 1912. p. 8. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ "Bay of Islands". Auckland Star XLV (133). p. 2. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ "Parliamentary Candidates". The Timaru Herald CI (15505). 16 November 1914. p. 3. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ "Other contests". The Evening Post. LXXXVIII (141). 11 December 1914. p. 3. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ↑ "Public Patronage". Poverty Bay Herald XLI (13540). 17 November 1914. p. 9. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ "The Wilkinson Case". The Evening Post. LXXXIX (119). 21 May 1915. p. 6.
- ↑ "Bay of Islands Petition". Waikato Times 84 (13163). 29 April 1915. p. 5. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
- ↑ "Bay of Islands Seat". Te Puke Times. 11 May 1915. p. 3. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
- ↑ "100 years of by-elections in New Zealand: 1913–2013". Parliamentary Library. 5 November 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
- ↑ Wilson 1985, p. 236.
- ↑ Wilson 1985, pp. 228, 236.
- ↑ Wood 1996, pp. 101, 114.
- ↑ Wilson 1985, p. 162.
- ↑ "The Governor-General". The New Zealand Herald LXIX (21239). 20 July 1932. p. 12. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
- ↑ "Treaty House". Register of Historic Places. Heritage New Zealand. Retrieved 28 March 2009.
- ↑ "Official jubilee medals". Evening Post CXIX (105). 6 May 1935. p. 4. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ Gustafson 1986, p. 18.
References
- Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years : A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00177-6.
- Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
- Wood, G. A. (1996) [First ed. published 1987]. Ministers and Members in the New Zealand Parliament (2 ed.). Dunedin: University of Otago Press. ISBN 1-877133-00-0.
New Zealand Parliament | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by Robert Houston |
Member of Parliament for Bay of Islands 1908–1915 1917–1922 |
Succeeded by William Stewart |
Preceded by William Stewart |
Succeeded by Allen Bell |