Michael Fowler: Bank checks out after 130-year term

The Union Bank stood on the corner of Karamu Rd North and Heretaunga St East and was later replaced by the ANZ Bank building.

Opinion

The recent closure of the ANZ Bank on the corner of Karamu Rd North and Heretaunga St East marked the end of more than 130 years of a bank on that site.

The site is also significant in that it was where the first commercial building in Hastings stood in the early 1870s.

With Hastings growing, the Union Bank of Australasia set up a temporary building in 1884 on the Karamu Rd North corner, with a substantial double-storey wooden building, replacing it a few years later.

A manager, teller, ledger keeper and junior were all employed.

Accommodation was provided upstairs for the manager, primarily for bank security.
Business was initially slow, with the manager writing in 1898 "Our business is mainly amongst tradespeople and small farmers, the large landowners banking in Napier".

Technology by way of the telephone was introduced to Hastings in 1904 with more than 125 subscribers.

The bank manager reported that farmers at a distance of 40 miles (64km) were even connected.

A plea was made to head office for a telephone to be installed in the bank because it was using the Hastings Club's at a cost of £5 (2017: $875) subscription per year, plus three pence ($5) per call.

Hastings in the early 1900s publicised its progress to the rest of New Zealand (especially to nearby Napier) when many substantial buildings were constructed, including the Union Bank, which announced plans to replace its wooden building in 1914.

The old wooden bank was cut in two and transported by steam traction engine to Willowpark Rd North, where it remains today.

The new two-storey brick building completed in 1915 was reinforced with railway lines (probably due to a shortage of steel during World War I).

Residential premises were provided for two bank officers on the top storey.

Provision had been made for shops on either side of the building, so a chemist and Mr Gardiner, who ran a business called Hawke's Bay Arts and Crafts, took up tenancies.

A competitor, much to the Union Bank's horror, ended up in its building when the Bank of Australasia sublet a room from a tenant in 1922.

Due to the Union Bank of Australia's building being steel reinforced, it easily survived the 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake, but not so the fire that followed - but the strong room had done its job, however, and protected the cash and documents from fire.

The Union Bank shared premises with four other banks after the earthquake, in Market St North in the hastily constructed temporary Community Bank building while repairs or new buildings were completed.

Union Bank staff who lost their possessions in the earthquake fire were reimbursed, and also for other items such as a torch used by the bank staff on night watch to guard against looters.

The pistol they carried would have been the bank's. (Right up to about the early 1970s, loaded bank pistols were kept near the tellers or under the bank manager's pillow in some cases at night. New Zealand Police had said alarms might be a better way to go rather than having a shoot-out in the bank foyer.)

The bank's foreign exchange ledger recorded that £31,000 ($3.4 million) worth of wool destined for London was lost in the Napier stores earthquake fires from their farming clients.

With some relief, the Bank of Australasia moved away from the Union Bank building after the earthquake to its own premises in Market St South.

Ironically, it was these two banks that merged in 1951 to form the Australia and New Zealand Bank or ANZ.

During the economically fast and furious 1980s, both ANZ buildings in Napier and Hastings were demolished to make way for glass-fronted new ones, with the Hastings building knocked over in 1985. This took some effort due to the strength of construction.

With a rationalisation of the ANZ banks in Hastings, the Queen St West branch was retained and the Karamu Rd North corner ANZ closed.

* Michael's books A Collage of History: Hastings, Havelock North and Napier and From Disaster to Recovery: The Hastings CBD 1931-35, are available at Whitcoulls, Hastings and Napier; Napier I-site; Art Deco Trust Napier; Beattie and Forbes, Napier, Plaza Books, Hastings; Wardini Havelock North and Napier; Hastings, Taradale and Napier Paper Plus and Poppies Havelock North.

* Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is the heritage officer at the Art Deco Trust.