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Kōrero: Awards and prizes

Mona McKay, competition winner, 1906

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Mona McKay, competition winner, 1906

This photo of young Mona McKay, wearing an expression of quiet triumph, appeared in the Auckland Weekly Newsin 1906.McKay was the winner of an essay-writing competition sponsored by the organisers of the Auckland Agricultural and Pastoral (A & P) Show. Entrants were required to write an essay on the show itself. Small-scale literary competitions like this were the only opportunity for writers to win prizes for their work until the creation of national literary awards in the 1940s.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Reference: AWNS-19060412-10-6

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Mark Derby, Awards and prizes – Awards and their origins, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/44671/mona-mckay-competition-winner-1906 (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Mark Derby, i tāngia i te 26 March 2014, updated 1 April 2020.