The building was opened with due ceremony by the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, in June,1930,
and for the next 48 years served the city and the province for the
encouragement of thrift, 'a virtue that is almost as old as civilisation
itself .14 Branches were established at Fitzroy in 1921, Waitara (1946),
Westown (1961), Moturoa (.1963), Devon Street East (1965), Frankleigh
Park (1969), Vogeltown (1971), Merrilands (1975), Bell Block (1975).
Outside the town the bank has branches at Inglewood, Stratford,
Hawera, Eltham and Opunake, as well as a mobile unit serving Oakura.
'In pursuance of the 106th clause of the Deed of Settlement of the
Company, I the undersigned officer of the Company do hereby pledge
myself not to reveal or make known any of the matters, affairs or
concerns which may come to my knowledge as an officer of the Bank in
any of the offices held by me respectively on the subject of the
transactions of the company with their customers, unless in the course
and in the performance of my duties, or under compulsion of obligation
of law, or when officially required to do by the board of directors, or by
the auditor for the time being or by a General Meeting of the Proprietors
of the Company. '15 This pledge was signed by Thomas King, the first
manager of the Bank of New Zealand in New Plymouth, when he opened
the branch on November 18, 1861. A few weeks earlier a public meeting
had been held in the Masonic Hotel (which later became the site of the
bank's headquarters in New Plymouth) and the Taranaki Herald
remarked on the local subscription of 1500 shares 'by a people so
impoverished (by the Maori war) as the Taranaki settlers'. Many times
that number of shares would have been subscribed, suggested the
Herald, had conditions been normal. The opening of the bank would be
most welcome. Without such a service 'the supply of goods is pitiful and
irregular, or it dribbles behind the demand. Merchant vessels, freighted
with the cargo we need, pass us by because there is no market for money
if there is one for goods, and few merchants are disposed, or can afford,
to send goods here with the chance of getting returns some six or twelve
months afterwards. Hence we obtain our groceries and other articles of
daily consumption in the mode commonly termed hand to mouth in small
parcels by rail steamer, instead of commanding regular supplies from the
cheapest markets.' There is some confusion over the identification of the
building in which the Bank- of New Zealand opened for business.
'Richmond Cottage, the first premises of the bank in New Plymouth',
says a caption in New Zealand Banker's Hundred, an official history by
N. M. Chappell, published in 1961. According to a letter from W. H.
Skinner to the bank in 1940, the first office was opened in 'the stone
cottage now in the grounds of the Terminus Hotel. This building (and
apparently other buildings occupied at various times by the Richmond
and Atkinson families) has been confused with another beach cottage,
which also stood in the grounds of the Terminus Hotel, and now stands
close to the New Plymouth Public Library graced with the name Richmond Cottage. The stone cottage was rented from the bank from J.
C. Richmond for £50 ($100) a year. In those days this would have been a
sizeable sum for a small cottage the size of to day's Richmond Cottage,
even in the favourable position the bank was said to be in, that is
"adjoining the Government offices" '.16 From the stone cottage the
bank moved into premises on the south side of Devon Street about 50
metres west of Currie Street corner. In 1874 it occupied its own building
on the corner of Devon and Robe Streets, built for $12,000. Besides the
'banking chamber and manager's office the building also included a
residence for the manager comprising six bedrooms (one of which was
the servant's), besides drawing room, sitting room, kitchen, scullery and
pantry' .17 In 1885 work started on a new building on the present site at
the corner of Devon and Brougham Streets. This had accommodation
for bank officers, while the manager used the old 1874 building until it
was sold to the Bank of Australasia for $4000. Built by 'Mr Taylor, of
Christchurch, and it is understood that he has not made much profit out
of the contract' 18 architects were' Mr Sanderson, of this town and, we
believe, Mr Mahoney, of Auckland', the building was 'commodious and
handsome. The circular counter for paying and receiving tellers is a most
perfect piece of workmanship, while the ledger-keeper's and accountant's
desks are constructed with due regard for the convenience of
customers ... the treasury, or the strongroom where the money-bags
are kept, adjoins the manager's room, and its entrance is securely
guarded by a massive fire-proof door ... the rooms upstairs are devoted
to the use of the bank clerks, who are to reside on the premises, and
consist of two bedrooms, parlour, and sitting room, also bathroom and
lumber room. The outer doors at the rear are barred with iron gratings,
which will effectually prevent the bank being taken by storm from the
rear by burglars when we become civilised enough to have this kind of
gentry among us.' 19 For nearly three-quarters of a century this building
was a feature of the town, until 1959 when temporary premises were
found in White's Building while new offices were built to the design of
Harvey and Bowering, New Plymouth architects. It was ceremonially
opened on September 8, 1961, the Bank of New Zealand's centennial
year.
In 1863 T. O'S. Green, an inspector of the Bank of New South Wales,
which two years previously had opened for business in New Zealand,
visited Taranaki and give such an unfavourable report of conditions that
it ended all thought of the bank opening there. With recovery from the
fighting, a branch was established in 1877. 'Taranaki's future lay in
refrigeration, its fertility, its wet equable climate-and its backwardness.
The first made possible the export of butter; its rain and fertile soil,
which was laid bare by burning the forest, made it admittably suitable for
dairying; its lack of development meant that its progress was not
impeded by the weight of past debts.
accurate. 'It seemed almost like a fairy tale; almost impossible that such
development could take place,' said N. K. MacDiarmid, the bank's New
Plymouth manager in 1899.21 But because of MacDiarmid's interest the
dairy co-operative movement had developed, and the Wales played a
leading part in it. In the 1891-92 season he advanced more than $32,000
against butter shipments. In that year the Lepperton Dairy Co-operative
Dairy Company opened, with the Wales backing of an advance of
$2,000, to be repaid by deducting a halfpenny (half a cent) a gallon from
the price of their milk. By the turn of the century the Wales was
acknowledged as 'the farmer's friend'. But competition with other
banks was keen, and when lower interest rates were introduced by them
the Wales lost several accounts, including that of Lepperton, to the
Bank of New Zealand. When that bank was nationalised by the Labour
Government in 1945, a move criticised in many business circles, the
Wales regained much of the lost business. Today it is one of the city's
leading financial houses, and its headquarters are in an impressive
building on the corner of Devon and Currie Streets. It has an agency in
Devon Street East.
When the National Bank of New Zealand was registered in London in
1872, New Zealand's future looked bright: gold had been discovered and
was paying for a substantial share of the country's imports; heavy
overseas borrowing was financing a massive programme of public works
designed to promote expansion, of which New Plymouth received its
share; there was great promise in the dairy industry. New Plymouth's
branch of the National in 1873 was one of the first of a substantial
network in the colony. For six years the bank, and the province,
prospered. Then the boom collapsed. The National's problems were
compounded by the fact that its headquarters was in London, and
decisions by mail took months of delay. But with the revival of the
economy in the early part of this century, the dairy industry was thriving
and a number of dairy companies became associated with the National
Bank. Headquarters are located on the corner of Devon and Brougham
Streets, and there is a sub-branch in Devon Street East, as well as
branches in Stratford, Hawera and Waitara.
Alexander James McIntosh was the first manager of the New
Plymouth branch of the Bank of Australasia, established in a building on
the corner of Devon and Robe Streets in 1895. The Union Bank of
Australia Ltd began business in Brougham Street in 1902, with G. E.
Mannering as manager, moving to new premises on the corner of Currie
and Devon Streets in 1905. In October 1951 these two banks merged to
form the Australia and New Zealand Bank Ltd, conducting their
business as two separate branches until 1962 when the headquarters was
established in a new building on the site of the old United Bank's office.
Few oftoday's banking customers can visualise the background of these
premises. Before its banking days the site was occupied by 'the iron store', a huge barn of a place with iron walls and an iron roof. It can have
been no architectural gem, although it was one of the more important
buildings in the town during its 39-year life. Brought from Sydney in 1855
by P. Imlay, it was erected by Philip Moon and H. Hooker, and in turn
was used as a warehouse, a military barracks and guard room, a dance
hall, a butter factory, an auction room, a skating rink, a Salvation Army
hall, a 'mission home' for new settlers, a tailor's shop, a wholesale
grocery store, and headquarters of New Plymouth's first co-operative
store, its last owner. It was used for receptions, concerts and many other
social occasions, and for a few years it was untenanted. In August, 1894,
T. Price's tender of$12 was accepted for demolishing the iron store (the
highest tender was $60).22 H. Hooker, who as a young man in 1855 had
helped to build it, helped to pull it down. He was also the contractor for
the stone work of the replacement building erected for the Wholesale
Co-operative Society, for which the architect was O. Deacon and the
builder G. Cliff. Tenants to occupy this building before the Union Bank
of Australia bought it in 1905 included the Daily News, John Gilmour,
and T. G. Sole, a surveyor.
Insurance is an old, well-established and expanding business in New
Zealand. In New Plymouth there are listed more than 90 brokers, agents
and companies representing many international and most of the
country's major companies. One of their investments of clients' money
is in the buildings the insurance companies conduct their business. A
large proportion of space in them is leased or rented to government,
commercial and professional concerns. The largest, and one of the most
recent additions to the city's skyline, is the headquarters of the State
Insurance Office on the corner of Gill and Liardet Streets. The branch
was established in New Plymouth in April 1908, and for many years
occupied a variety of buildings. Increasing business (between 1972 and
1978 premium income of the branch increased from $861,888 to
$1,929,756) necessitated larger premises and the white, eight-storey
building towers over its neighbours. It cost $4 million. The two lower
floors are occupied by the State Insurance, and in other floors are the
Housing Corporation, the Customs Department, the Post Office engineers'
section and a firm of solicitors. A much appreciated feature of
this building is an intimate theatre capable of seating 280. It is equipped
with elaborate lighting and sound systems and has facilities for television
broadcasting. 'The theatre has not been designed a money-making
venture. Instead it is intended to return to something the people of New
Plymouth.