The Birth Of

A Bank

I story of banking in Australia nd in NZ from the early days onial settlements to the present s recounted in a 450 pp. volume ilia and New Zealand Bank by isor S. I. Butlin (Professor of imics, Sydney University), in October to mark the 10th ;rsary of ANZ Bank Ltd. ; Bank of Australasia (formed and the Union Bank of Aus- Ltd. (1837) merged in 1951 m Australia and New Zealand Ltd., now probably the second t free-enterprise bank in the :rn hemisphere, and the history j two institutions parallels the il economic development of the Duntries they primarily served. nds readers will note with >t that the Union Bank estab a branch in Fiji in 1880—a in clinched when CSR Co. i its business. First site was vuka, then Suva in 1883; but sed over its customers to the of New Zealand, Suva, in the mic depression of 1890. ANZ renewed the connection by open- Suva branch in 1951, then later utoka. mgh the Union Bank opened up isiness in Port Moresby, Papua, 10 it did not see out a decade; was not until September, 1953, le merged ANZ Bank re-opened Later it extended to New a, with branches at Rabaul and h banks, at various times re l—and turned down—requests Noumea merchants to establish ;w Caledonia, particularly after >llapse of the local Bank of New onia in the 1870’s (the Bank ustralasia was involved in sub al exchange dealings with it and ;red the steamer Waratah to a senior bank official to the h Colony to try to minimise )ss).

II produced and written in an readable style, this book should a wider audience than the al run of company histories. Its lustrations and colour plates help the changing life of Australia SfZ from the early 19th century e present day.

[Stralia And New Zealand

- Published by Longmans Green and <td. 45/-.)