Mr. Cyril Keate Sams, Accountant at the Christchurch branch of the Bank of Australasia, was born in 1859 in Tasmania, where he was educated. He entered the service of the bank in Launceston as a junior in 1875, and was transferred to Ballarat in Victoria, two years later. In 1881, he was entrusted with the opening of a branch bank at Tallangatta, and continued as manager for two years. After a year at Adelaide, he was appointed agent at Smeaton, Victoria, and two years later manager at Mount Barker in South Australia, where he remained two years. In 1889, he was re-transferred to Adelaide, and became acting accountant in Geelong in 1891. Mr. Sams was subsequently teller at Batlarat for a year, and then returned to Geelong as accountant; eighteen months later he was transferred to New Zealand in a similar position at Christchurch, and received his present appointment in 1894.