Description:
One and a quarter life-size, the statue weighs one and a half tons.   Carved from marble.

History:
About 1858 the Captain Cook Inn in Khyber Pass, Auckland was built, and purchased by Thomas Hancock, who began brewing beer there.
The Captain Cook Brewery was firmly established here by 1871, when Hancock was in partnership with his son-in-law Samuel Jagger.
In 1882, a new brewery building was built, and in 1884 the statue of Captain Cook was mounted on the roof over the entrance.
The sculptor is thought to have been from Italy, and one who was working in Sydney in the 1880s.
In 1977 the company’s name was changed to Lion Breweries, and in 1986 it became Lion Corporation Ltd.
Over the years the statue has been moved several times.  In 1968 it was on the Lion Brewery in Khyber Pass Road, Auckland.  In 1989 pictures show it positioned at the South Pacific Hotel.
In 2013 the statue was in the foyer of the former Packaging Hall of Lion Brewery in Khyber Pass, Newmarket, New Zealand.
Three copies of this original statue were cast for Cook’s bi-centenary in 1969.  One for Kaiti Hill, Gisborne, where Cook first landed, another went to the James Cook High School in Manurewa, and the other is positioned in Papatoetoe, outside the new Lion Brewery.
In 2017 the original statue was in storage after the site of the brewery was purchased by Auckland University.

Inscription:
Carved into the stone on which the statue stands:

Captn Cook

Plaque on the plinth on which the statue used to stand:

Capt. James  COOK R.N.
1728-1779
First to circumnavigate N.S. 1769
First to brew beer in New Zealand
at Dusky Sound, 1773

GPS Coordinates:   -36.865861, 174.769711

References
Cook’s Log, page 648, vol. 12, no. 1 (1989)
Cook’s Log, page 968, vol. 17, no. 1 (1994)
Cook’s Log, page 28, vol. 36, no. 1 (2013)
Website: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/the-university/how-university-works/campuses-locations-transport/faculties-institutes-campuses/our-campuses-locations/newmarket-campus/newmarket-site-history.html
Website: http://gisborneherald.co.nz/lifestyle/2442008-135/unveiling-the-history-of-the-crook

Image gallery (click to enlarge)