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Bank of Otago
New Zealand colonial bank
The Bank of Otago was a bank which successfully operated in New Zealand's Otago Province from late 1863 until it was bought in 1873 by a new London incorporation, The National Bank of New Zealand, also run from Dunedin but endowed with many times more capital and plans to operate nationwide.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0
Last updated Oct 21, 2026.
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The Bank of Otago was a bank which successfully operated in New Zealand's Otago Province from late 1863 until it was bought in 1873 by a new London incorporation, The National Bank of New Zealand, also run from Dunedin but endowed with many times more capital and plans to operate nationwide.2
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54-year-old John Bathgate was sent by the London board to be colonial manager (chief executive in New Zealand). He arrived in Dunedin on 23 November 1863. He was a Scottish solicitor with banking experience. His practice in Peebles — then a centre of the Scottish woollen industry — had extended to his taking on the Peebles agency for the Union Bank of Scotland.
Two of his accounts proved to be unsatisfactory investments of bank funds and Bathgate was obliged to tender his resignation from his Bank of Otago post effective on the arrival of his replacement.
Bathgate was replaced by 34-year-old Australian-born William Larnach, who was appointed from London and arrived in Dunedin in September 1867 to be chief colonial manager of the bank. Larnach had joined the Bank of New South Wales about 1863 and risen to manager of their Geelong branch at a time when poor communications placed heavy responsibility on branch managers. Larnach was well-connected: his uncle, Donald Larnach, a long time Sydney member of the Bank of New South Wales' board was later chairman of the London board. William Larnach was also a family friend of W. J. T. Clarke, said at that time to be the richest man in Australasia.
After the Bank of Otago became the National Bank Larnach was expected to remain with them a further twelve months.
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From the main office in Dunedin, twelve branches were established within Otago's sphere of influence. The gold rushes ended. The new bank managed to survive rather than prosper. It was sold on 1 July 1873 to form the core of the new National Bank of New Zealand.
From Wikipedia’s article on Bank of Otago, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3
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- WikipediaBank of Otago
- More imagesWikimedia Commons
- WikidataQ806688
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The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataBank of Otago on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaBank of Otago on Wikipedia
- 3
- 4Wikimedia CommonsBank of Otago photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0