Mr. Henry Mackenzie, who is referred to on page 510 as General Manager of the Bank of New Zealand, resigned that position in February, 1897, and at the time of writing (March, 1897) the office is vacant.

Mr. John Baird Hobart, Accountant of the Bank of New Zealand, Wellington, is an Irishman by birth, having been born in Birr, Queen's County. Educated at Rathmaine's College, Dublin, he got an insight into mercantile life in the Old Country. With the first Vesey-Stewart settlers he came to Auckland by the ship “Dover Castle” in 1875, and for three years he travelled through the colonies before settling down. Joining the Bank of New Zealand as a clerk in Auckland in 1879, Mr. Hobart has passed through various grades of the service, having held appointments at the Thames, Coromandel, Hamilton, Wanganui, Christchurch, and elsewhere. He was promoted to the position of assistant accountant in 1887, and four years afterwards to that of accountant, taking up the duties of his office in Wellington in 1892. During the great financial crisis of 1884 in Auckland, Mr. Hobart was employed by the bank to prepare special reports on several of the large estates which at that time went into liquidation.