Banks in larger towns tended to be ostentatious. This was the Invercargill branch of the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) in the 1880s. The government took a shareholding in BNZ in 1885, and in 1894 it became the majority shareholder, moving its head office to Wellington. The government’s ownership of the BNZ, and use of it as its banker, allowed it to become the largest trading bank. The BNZ was fully nationalised in 1945.
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Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference:
N-P 1701-1
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