[4][10] Reed won the Bay of Islands electorate in the 1908 general election as a candidate of the Liberal Party.

[11] 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.

[12][13] 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.

[18] Reed narrowly won the election against Te Rangi Hīroa of the Liberal Party, with Wilkinson coming third.

[19] 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,[20] an allegation later picked up by other media outlets but also implicating Reed in the affair.

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.

[28] 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.

[33] Reed joined the National Party and was one of the Auckland agitators against Adam Hamilton and for Charles Wilkinson.

[35] Her younger sister Enid "Githa" Williams had married Royal Navy officer James Fergusson in 1901 in England; he was later to become Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff.