Mr. Walter Synnot Cobham, Manager of the Christchurch branch of the Bank of Australasia, is a native of Melbourne, where he was born in 1856, and educated at the Scotch College. He is the son of Mr. Francis McCrae Cobham, of Kallara, Victoria. He joined the Geelong branch of the Bank of Australasia as a junior in 1872. Two years later, he was transferred to Yackandandah, and a year later to New Zealand, where he was attached to the Wellington office for about three months after his arrival in the Colony. When only eighteen years of age Mr. Cobham was promoted to the position of manager, and was certainly the youngest bank manager in Australasia. He was entrusted with the opening of several branches, and was in charge at Marton, Foxton, Waverley, Featherston, and Hawera, at the last of which he remained between four and five years. In 1886, Mr. Cobham was recalled to Melbourne, where he joined the inspectorial staff, and after two years returned to New Zealand as acting subinspector, holding the position till 1891, when his services were again required in Australia. In 1886, he became sub-inspector in Victoria, and was appointed to the position which he holds in Christchurch in page 262 September, 1898. Mr. Cobham has been twice married, the second time in January, 1897, to a daughter of the late Mr. W. H. Foster, police magistrate, of Ballarat, and has one son, born in May, 1898.