Colonial Bank of New Zealand

Colonial Bank of New Zealand was established in Dunedin, New Zealand in April 1874 as a public listed company.[2] [3] Dunedin with its involvements with the South Island's gold mining was the major source of local capital for New Zealand's entrepreneurs.

Colonial Bank of New Zealand
public listed company
IndustryBanking
FoundedJuly 1874 (July 1874)
Defunct1898 (1898)
HeadquartersDunedin,
New Zealand
Key people
[1]
ProductsBanking, financial and saving services
Colonial Bank of New Zealand's Dunedin building 1880 (built to be the Post Office, after the amalgamation of the Banks it became the Stock Exchange)

The Dunedin branch of the Bank of New Zealand is at the left of this photograph

The Colonial Bank had by 1889 expanded to 27 branches and an office in London. There was a major financial slump in 1893 and negotiations began to amalgamate the Colonial Bank with the Bank of New Zealand. In 1895 the Bank of New Zealand took it over[4] then, finding itself in major difficulties, the Bank of New Zealand was obliged to let the Colonial Bank collapse in 1898.

W. J. M. Larnach, M.P. who had been one of the promoters[2] and owned a substantial shareholding bought more shares just prior to the collapse to show his confidence in its survival. Learning of the collapse he shut himself in one of parliament's committee rooms and shot himself dead.[5]

The business was liquidated by 1901 and the company dissolved in 1905.[6]

A Dunedin bank

The Bank of New Zealand had been founded in October 1861 by a similar local group in Auckland and, to pull capital north, it opened a branch in Dunedin in December 1861. The Colonial Bank of New Zealand may have been formed just to re-capture the Bank of New Zealand's South Island business.[7]

New Zealand's banks

Together the Bank of New Zealand and the Colonial Bank were New Zealand's only significant local banks.

At that time New Zealand's overseas-owned banks were: National Bank of New Zealand (now ANZ), Bank of New South Wales (Westpac), Union Bank of Australia and the Bank of Australasia (ANZ).

Both Australian banks and New Zealand banks got into difficulties at the end of the 1880s.[8][9]

Wellington branch building, Lambton Quay, 1880
Oamaru branch building, Thames Street circa 1880

References
  1. The Colonial Bank Otago Daily Times 1 October 1874 Page 3
  2. A New Bank. Otago Daily Times 27 April 1874 Page 2
  3. Editorial. Otago Daily Times, 20 July 1874 Page 2
  4. The Liquidation of the Colonial Bank Otago Daily Times 28 December 1895 Page 6
  5. Otago Daily Times 13 October 1898, Page 6
  6. Otago Daily Times 3 May 1905, Page 3
  7. History of Banking Operations in New Zealand, The Manawatu Standard, 14 March 1944 Page 2
  8. Te Ara International Economic Relations page 1
  9. Te Ara Large Companies page 4
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