RESERVE BANK N.Z.

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21087, 12 February 1934, Page 8

RESERVE BANK N.Z.

THE FIRST GOVERNOR, MR LEFEAUX'S WIDE EXPERIENCE (TBOM CUR OWK COBBEBEOHDZXT.) LONDON, January 12. Mr Leslie Lefeaux, who has been appointed governor of the New Zealand Reserve Bank, will be arranging for the printing of the new tank notes before he leaves for the Dominion. In accepting the governorship of the Reserve Bank, he permanently severs all connexion with the Bank of England. He is expected to reach New Zealand about the middle of March. Mr Lefeaux was born in 1836, and joined the staff of the Bank of England in 1902. In 1919 he was appointed assistant deputy principal of the discount office, and in the following year became assistant principal. In 1924 he left the discount office for a time to be first auditor, but returned in the following year as deputy principal. In February, 1927, be was appointed an additional deputy chief cashier. Especial interest attaches to the latter promotion, as it was believed to be tha first occasion on which the position j of deputy chief cashier had been duplicated. In November, 1932, he was appointed to the newly-created position of assistant to the governors of the Bank of England. His new post relieved him of much of tha routine work of the bank and gave him greater freedom for the study of more general banking problems. Since the end of 1932 he has had a wide experience of central banking. The appointment of a senior official of the Bank of England to be the first governor of a Dominion central reserve institution is not unprecedented. Towards the end of 1920 Mr William Henry Clegg, who had had long experience ai head of the branch banks department and as chief accountant of the Bank of England, was appointed to be the governor of the new South African Central Reserve Bank.