Architect’s Grandmother Lived At The Bank

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31774, 3 September 1968, Page 14

Architect’s Grandmother Lived At The Bank

Mr M. J. Moffat, architect of the new Australia and New Zealand Bank to be built in Hereford Street, has a family link with the old bank building now being demolished to make room for the new one.

His grandmother had a bedroom in the old bank when she was governess to the children of the branch’s first manager, Mr Joseph Palmer. His father, Mr A. L. Moffat, remembers having the room pointed out to him by his mother. He went back to see it on Friday, but in its more recent capacity as ledger room it was no longer recognisable as a bedroom. Mr Moffat senior said his mother was the first white girl born in North Canterbury. Her parents had arrived at Lyttelton in the Labuan in August, 1851, and had gone to live at Highfield. Her father, James Gaskell, was later manager of the “Ready Money” Robinson Cheviot property. A cob hut was built for them. It was later shaken down in an earthquake. Mr Moffat said his mother became governess to the bank manager’s children when she was 16.

“That’s how she met my father,” he said. “He was working at a flour mill not far away and she used to take the children for walks down to the mill. Later, my father and I built the Avon flour mill at Addington. It’s now called the Zealandia mill.”

Mr Moffat also managed to

see the old brick stables behind the bank a few weeks ago before they were pulled down.