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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]
The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited
The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited. Chief office for the Colony, Featherston Street, Wellington Telephone 454. Bankers, Union Bank of Australia. Head office London. Directors Messrs. Edward Martin (chairman), John Beaumont, A. C. Garrick, H. J. Gibbs, Vesey G. M. Holt, and W. W. Oswald. Mr. David Elder is general manager for Australia, and Mr. J. Newman Barker inspector. For New Zealand, Mr. Malcolm Macpherson is general manager, and Mr. W. T. Dodds inspector. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited, was originally incorporated early in 1865, and commenced business that year as produce, financial, and general commercial agents, with their head office for the Colony at Auckland, a branch at Christchurch, and agencies in all other parts of the Colony, the registered office of the Company being situate in London. In the beginning of 1873 the operations of the Company were extended to Australia—first to Melbourne, then to Sydney, and afterwards to the other main centres and to Tasmania. In February, 1889, the colonial board of directors (which had up to that date controlled the business in the colonies) was abolished, and attorneys were thereupon appointed to manage the business in New Zealand and Australia respectively. In July, 1893, consequent on the serious and almost universal fall in prices, the disturbed state of the money market generally, and particularly the financial crisis in Australia, the Company suspended operations with a view to reconstruction. Meanwhile the business of the Company, which had grown to enormous dimensions, was temporarily transferred to the New Zealand Land Association—though still worked by the Loan Company officers and staff—and was well maintained through the two colonies and in London. On the 10th of May, 1894, the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., Limited, was incorporated, having an authorised capita of £3,900,000, and immediately assumed operative business throughout the colonies. On the 1st of May, 1895, the New Zealand head office of the Company was transferred to Wellington, the central situation of which offers special facilities for control of business in the Colony. The Company now has branches at Auckland, Hamilton, Gisborne, Napier, Wanganui, Palmerston North, Masterton, Wellington, Blenheim, Christchurch, Lyttelton, Rakaia Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin, Invercargill, Bluff and Gore in New Zealand, and branches in Australia at Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Rockhampton, with agents at Adelaide, Newcastle, etc.