BANK’S PROGRESS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19622, 17 October 1933, Page 14

BANK’S PROGRESS.

SEVENTY-TWO YEARS IN BUSINESS. WELLINGTON, October 14. When the door» of the Bank of New Zealand closed as usual at 11.30 a.m. to-day it completed 72 years of business. The bank first opened its doors at Auckland on October 16. 1861, and began business at its Wellington branch on January 15, 1862. This branch has now become the roots and trunk of the institution, its branches not only reaching all over New Zealand, but to Sydney and Melbourne. Fiji, and Samoa, and it also has its London branch, which occupies a position facing the Bank of England. Comparison of the leading figures in the Bank of New Zealand when it had begun its business with those of this year make interesting reading. They are as follows: — 1862. 1933 f £ Paid-up capital 108,785 6.858,133 Reserve fund .. 3,000 3.575,000 Note circulation 62,914 4,338,747 Bills payable .. 6.288 3,529,577 Deposits .. .. 334,097 32,573.238 Landed property 9,961 632.771 Total assets .. 555,979 52,762,903 The bank's contribution to the Government by way of dividends and taxation amounts to about £650,0r0 per annum. Incidentally, the general manager of the Bank of New Zealand, Sir Henry Buckleton, will have completed at the end of this year a period of 55 years' service with the institution, beginning as a boy in the Sydney branch of the bank.