Trust and Agency Company of Australasia
(Limited).

This institution – the premier of the Anglo-Australasian Mortgage Companies—was incorporated in London in 1860, by its founder, Mr. James Hora, General Manager, and now one of its Directors. The operations of this Company extend over the Colonies of Australia, where Messrs. Gibbs, Bright and Co. are the Managing Agents; and in New Zealand, where Mr. Charles Robt. Blakiston, assisted by a Board of Local Trustees, manages its business, in offices leased from Mr. W. H. Wynn-Williams, No. 211, Hereford-street, Christchurch. Extracts from a statement prepared by Mr. Hora, and published in 1883, will show the history and then position of this and kindred institutions. The following figures represent an amount of help to colonial enterprise and industry, the importance of which it is difficult to over-rate. Within the comparatively short time since 1860, a sum equal to £17,777,320 has by their means been placed at the service of these colonies. This is in addition to the £11,120,000 invested in the seven Australian Banks established in England between 1835 and 1872. The seven other Banks doing business in the Australasian colonies are of colonial institution, having their head offices page 160and directorates in the colonies, where also their shares are mainly held. There are also several Scottish-Australasian mortgage companies, not quoted on the London Stock Exchange, whose capital and reserve would bring up the total of British capital invested in these undertakings to about £21,000,000. Large as this sum undoubtedly is, it is gratifying to find that its outlay has been eminently profitable; indeed, it would be difficult to point to any form of enterprise which has, on the whole, yielded more satisfactory results, and caused less loss by individual failures, than these Australasian Mortgage Companies. The principles on which they are based are sound, their Directors have, in most cases, been men of position and ability and their affairs have been carefully managed.