Company type | public listed company |
---|---|
Industry | Banking |
Founded | April 1863 |
Defunct | April 1873National Bank of New Zealand | absorbed by The
Headquarters | Dunedin, New Zealand |
Key people | |
Products | Note-issuing, banking, financial and saving services |
The Bank of Otago was a bank which successfully operated in New Zealand's Otago province from late 1863 until it was bought in 1873 by a new London incorporation, The National Bank of New Zealand, also run from Dunedin but endowed with many times more capital and plans to operate nationwide.
The Bank of Otago Limited was incorporated in London in 1863. Its board of directors: Alexander Lang Elder of the English, Scottish and Australian Bank and six others with banking interests in India, Canada and Africa, promoted the sale of its shares always referring to the Otago goldfields and the spectacular growth in the amount of gold exported from Otago. [1] [2] The shares were listed on the London Stock Exchange and special enabling legislation enacted in New Zealand, (the) Bank of Otago Limited Act, 1863. [3]
The Head Office was to be in London and the chief branch in Dunedin. Other branches or agencies were to be established at such settlements as the directors would determine.
The many advertisements announced: "The Bank will receive money on deposit in London and New Zealand, repayable at long and short dates, open drawing accounts in the colony, issue Notes, discount Bills, conduct exchange operations, receive dividends, interest, &c, for customers, effect purchases and sales in funds, stock, &c, for them, and transact all other legitimate banking business." [4]
54-year-old John Bathgate was sent by the London board to be colonial manager (chief executive in New Zealand). He arrived in Dunedin on 23 November 1863. [5] [6] He was a Scottish solicitor with banking experience. His practice in Peebles — then a centre of the Scottish woollen industry — had extended to his taking on the Peebles agency for the Union Bank of Scotland. [7] [8]
Two of his accounts proved to be unsatisfactory investments of bank funds and Bathgate was obliged to tender his resignation from his Bank of Otago post effective on the arrival of his replacement. [9]
Bathgate was replaced by 34-year-old Australian-born William Larnach, who was appointed from London and arrived in Dunedin in September 1867 to be chief colonial manager of the bank. [10] Larnach had joined the Bank of New South Wales about 1863 and risen to manager of their Geelong branch at a time when poor communications placed heavy responsibility on branch managers. Larnach was well-connected: his uncle, Donald Larnach, a long time Sydney member of the Bank of New South Wales' board was later chairman of the London board. William Larnach was also a family friend of W. J. T. Clarke, said at that time to be the richest man in Australasia.
After the Bank of Otago became the National Bank Larnach was expected to remain with them a further twelve months. [11]
From the main office in Dunedin, twelve branches were established within Otago's sphere of influence. The gold rushes ended. The new bank managed to survive rather than prosper. It was sold on 1 July 1873 to form the core of the new National Bank of New Zealand.
Negotiations for an amalgamation of the banking business with the English Scottish and Australian Chartered Bank were entered into during 1870 [12] but were broken off in May that year. Work on the expensive stone new building at Oamaru was halted for some months but did resume and smaller branches continued to establish themselves around the region. A disastrous fire broke out beside the substantial Tay Street Invercargill building in October 1871. The fire destroyed all the buildings in the block but only scorched the Bank of New Zealand just across the narrow alley —favoured, it was reported, by a light wind from the north-west. [13]
At the end of August 1872 a new bank, the National Bank of New Zealand, was announced in London. It would have many times more capital and it would begin its business by absorbing the Bank of Otago. [14]
Its intended sphere far wider than the province of Otago the new bank was incorporated in London by a different group of people including a number of former high profile New Zealand residents, among them former Governor Thomas Gore Browne, former Speaker Charles Clifford and former Wellington Provincial Superintendent Isaac Featherston. [15]
Negotiations of the terms on which The National Bank of New Zealand would absorb The Bank of Otago were completed on 17 April 1873. [16] [17] The bank's business was handed over by William Larnach on 1 July 1873. [18] Larnach remained manager of the new bank into 1874. [19]
The twelve branches of Bank of Otago taken over by the National Bank were (with managers): [18]
|
|
|
The National Bank of New Zealand Limited (NBNZ), often referred to as The National Bank, was one of New Zealand's largest banks. Throughout much of its history, the National Bank provided commercial banking services to mainly major industrial and rural as well as some personal customers.
William Henry Cutten was a New Zealand politician from the Otago region.
The Otago Daily Times (ODT) is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ODT is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a combined print and digital annual audience of 304,000. Founded in 1861 it is New Zealand's oldest surviving daily newspaper – Christchurch's The Press, six months older, was a weekly paper until March 1863.
William James Mudie Larnach was a New Zealand businessman and politician. He is known for his extravagant incomplete house near Dunedin called Larnach's castle by his opponents and now known as Larnach Castle. He is also remembered for his suicide within parliament buildings when faced with bankruptcy and consequent loss of his seat in parliament.
Thomas Bannatyne Gillies was a 19th-century New Zealand lawyer, judge and politician.
Henry Smith Fish was a 19th-century New Zealand politician. For a time, he was a member of the Liberal Party. He was Mayor of Dunedin for a total of six years. Smith is remembered as one of the staunch opponents of women's suffrage.
John Bathgate was a New Zealand politician, and Minister of Justice and Commissioner of Stamps from 1872 to 1874.
Thomas Dick was a 19th-century New Zealand politician. Originally a merchant, he worked in London and then represented his firm on Saint Helena for seven years. From there, he was sent to Dunedin as the company's representative; he emigrated with an extended family. He soon became involved in politics and was Superintendent of Otago Province from 1865 until 1867. Over a period of 24 years, he represented various Dunedin electorates in Parliament and was Colonial Secretary (1880–1884), Minister of Justice from 1881 to 1882, and Minister of Education from 1881 to 1884. A deeply religious man, he was involved in many church affairs. He was one of the founders of Hanover Street Baptist Church; the building is now classified as Category I by Heritage New Zealand.
James Benn Bradshaigh Bradshaw was a 19th-century member of parliament in the Otago region of New Zealand. He also played cricket.
Edward Bowes Cargill was a 19th-century businessman and Member of Parliament in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. He was the Mayor of Dunedin from 1897 to 1898.
City of Dunedin, during the first two parliaments called Town of Dunedin, was a parliamentary electorate in Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand. It was one of the original electorates created in 1853 and existed, with two breaks, until 1905. The first break, from 1862 to 1866, was caused by an influx of people through the Otago gold rush, when many new electorates were formed in Otago. The second break occurred from 1881 to 1890. It was the only New Zealand electorate that was created as a single-member, two-member and three member electorate.
Dunedin and Suburbs North was a parliamentary electorate in the city of Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand from 1863 to 1866. It was a multi-member electorate.
Dunedin and Suburbs South was a parliamentary electorate in the city of Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand from 1862 to 1866. From 1863 it was a multi-member electorate.
William Baldwin, born John Baldwin was a 19th-century Member of Parliament in the Otago region of New Zealand.
Samuel Edward Shrimski was a 19th-century Member of Parliament and then a Member of the Legislative Council from Otago, New Zealand.
George Hepburn was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from Otago, New Zealand. Born in Scotland he emigrated to New Zealand in 1850. He first entered politics by serving on the Provincial Council of Otago from 1855 to 1865 before he was elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives as member for Roslyn in 1866.
The 5th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the New Zealand Parliament. Elections for this term were held in 68 European electorates between 14 January and 23 February 1871. Elections in the four Māori electorates were held on 1 and 15 January 1871. A total of 78 MPs were elected. Parliament was prorogued in December 1875. During the term of this Parliament, six Ministries were in power.
Sir Joshua Strange Williams was a New Zealand lawyer, politician, Supreme Court judge and university chancellor.
Eyre Creek is a locality in Southland, New Zealand, situated to the north-east of the Five Rivers Plain. It lies on State Highway 6, 18 km north of Lumsden. On its northern side is the Jollies Hill Pass, commonly known as the Jollies, which skirts the western flank of the Mid Dome.
Alexander Kerr F.R.G.S. was a Scottish banker who was the first manager for the Bank of New Zealand.