JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 28 November 1924, Page 4

JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS.

HAWERA BRANCH BANK OF . NEW SOUTH WALES. • (By “Fifty-one.”) . The history of banking in South Taranaki is an interesting one, and few lines on the establishment of these, ’institutions in our district will not be out of pla!cel Fifty years ago Hawera was in the making, and. the nearest, banking’ convenience was at Patea,. where the Bank of New Zealand had opened a branch, a short time ously, under the management of Mr. H. I<\ Christie, whose death at Wanganui >vas recently recorded. The business was then transacted in a building at the top of the hill pleading to' the river, the late Mr. Felix McGuire havin'© a general store next door. I happened to be in Patea in 1874, assistign Mr. Joseph Ives s to start- the Patea Mail' (the, first paper ‘in South Taranaki), and it was at this tune; Mr. R. C. Tennent came across: fifom Nelson and opened a branch of ’the: Bank of New South Wales in a small; building next the Albion Hotel, previously used by D. M. Harris and sub-* sequently by Chadwick Bros/ (Joe and Harry) as an office. Business was - fairly brisk in Patea fifty years ago, a portion of Sir Julius Vogel’s ten million loan being still unexpended; but the slump came a few years later (in the early eighties), and it was pitiable to see the collapse of many one-, time prosperous businesses. . Those that survived had an awful struggle, and one might mention the late Mr. John Gibson in particular. His indomitable pluck and business ability, however, overcame all difficulties. ' To-day the Hawera branch of the Bank of New South Wales is celebrating its jubilee, and proudly flies its flag to denote the fact. In offering congratulations to this progressive institution on its half-century record,. I might mention that it was the first: bank to establish itself in Hawera, the date of opening being November 28, 1874, in temporary premises, the late Mr G. V. Bate being the first manager. On January 5, 1875, the present site jn Princes street was pur- ’ chased, and in the following July business was transferred to a new building r erected by Messrs W. Aiken and F. M. Spurdle, "of Wanganui, at which Mr; G. Byrne, sen., also assisted. (Old Taranaki boys will remember Fred Spurdle, especially those who 'attended' Beardsworth’s' and Schofield’s schools. Mr Spurdle also erected the Patea. bank, which was opeend a few months before the Hawera branch.) / Many changes have 1 taken place in Hawera since the opening of-the Bank of New South Wales in -.1874, and to-; day we have five institutions (New Zealand, N.S.W.. Australasia. National and Commercial) doing banking business, no doubt all being satisfied with the future outlook. The Bank of New Zealand opened a branch in Normanby in 1877, but left there and came to Hawera on April 2 of the same year. The present manager of the Bank of New South Wales (Mr R. A. Douglas), although not a native of Taranaki, is a direct descendant of the pioneers, his grandparents having landed from the Amelia Thompson in September, I. The late Mr W. St. George Douglas’ mother was a Miss Shaw, and his wife a Miss Newland —-names still widely known and highly respected throughout Taranaki.