Guide to the Records of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company (as filmed by the AJCP)
M1000 - M1092
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2019
Collection Summary
- Creator
- New Zealand and Australian Land Company
- Title
- Records of New Zealand and Australian Land Company (as filmed by the AJCP)
- Date Range
- 1862 - 1963
- Collection Number
- M1000 - M1092
- Extent
- 404 items
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Australian Joint Copying Project
- Sponsor
- The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020. The National Library of Australia gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the other foundation AJCP partners, the State Library of New South Wales and The National Archives of the UK, and all other organisations which supported the work of the AJCP, the world's most extensive collaborative copying project, operating from 1948 to 1997.
Introduction
Scope and Contents
Minute-books, balance sheets and balance account records of the New Zealand and Otago Agricultural and Land Investment Association Ltd 1862-68, the Canterbury and Otago Association Ltd 1865-76, the New Zealand and Australian Land Co Ltd 1866-1962.
Letter-books 1864-1945 of the New Zealand and Australian Land Co. The letters are arranged in chronological order, with each volume prefaced by a nominal index. M1003 begins with the letter-book of Douglas Alderson & Co of Dunedin, New Zealand.
Outward Australian correspondence 1882-1912, arranged chronologically.
Outward New Zealand correspondence 1882-1912, arranged chronologically.
Letter-books containing outward colonial correspondence 1879-1939, arranged chronologically.
Australian and New Zealand correspondence 1939-45; foreign letter-book, Australia 1882-1934; foreign letter-book, New Zealand 1882-1924.
Letters inwards book 1932-62 giving name and address of sender, with a brief indication of the contents; letter-book of correspondence with HM Inspector of Taxes and Inland Revenue 1945.
David Murray correspondence 1881-84; 'Kawarau' letter-book 1884-89; private letter-book 1887-1907.
Colonial cablegrams 1888-1963, being copies of cables received and sent to both Australia and New Zealand. Many of the cables deal with financial arrangements, but the majority contain brief reports on rainfall and pastoral conditions; private reports by William S. Davidson, the General Manager, to the Directors concerning New Zealand and Australian properties, 1882 and 1886.
Balance sheets, reports and circulars 1865-1926.
Miscellaneous papers, including memoranda and articles of association.
Reports on estates 1909-30.
Taxation files 1926-47.
Land and wool sale files 1935-49.
M1088-1092:
Miscellaneous legal and financial documents, pamphlets, maps and plans.
Conditions Governing Access
Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use
Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.
Preferred Citation
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)
Archival History
Filmed at the Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh, as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1976 (AJCP Reel: M1000-M1092). Original microfilm digitised as part of the NLA AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.
Existence and Location of Originals
Scottish Record Office. HM General Register House, Edinburgh, Scotland.Collection Reference GDI/553. Previous Collection Reference GDI/553. Current Collection reference:GD435. For further information see Scottish Record Office catalogue (http://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/nrsonlinecatalogue/welcome.aspx).
Existence and Location of Copies
The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn8049749] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.
Finding-aid Notes
This finding aid is a revised online version of the original finding aid prepared by the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP), published by the National Library of Australia in 2019. The original AJCP finding aids were unpublished typescripts or photocopies available from libraries that held copies of the original microfilm.
Dates used in this finding aid refer to the date range of the records selected for filming rather than to the date range of the Series or Files.
Subjects
Alderson, Douglas & Co; Australia; Business records; Canterbury and Otago Association Ltd; Canterbury, New Zealand; Davidson, William S.; Dunedin, New Zealand; Farms and Farming: Australia; Farms and Farming: New South Wales; Farms and Farming: New Zealand; Glasgow, Scotland; Investment in New Zealand; Kawarau, New Zealand; Land companies; Land: Australia; Land: New South Wales; Land: New Zealand; Land: Queensland; Land: Western Australia; Maps, plans and charts; Meat industry and trade; Murray, David; New South Wales: economic conditions; New Zealand; New Zealand and Australian Land Co; New Zealand and Otago Agricultural and Land Investment Association Ltd; Otago, New Zealand; Queensland: pastoral industry; Western Australia; Wool and woolgrowing: Australia; Wool and woolgrowing: New Zealand
Bibliography
Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 344, pp131-132.
Biographical / Historical
Between 1859 and 1877 the landed interests in New Zealand of 17 individuals, companies and associations, all based in Scotland, were brought together to form the Australian and New Zealand Land Company. In 1865 the Canterbury and Otago Association was formed, with the Glasgow financier James Morton as the general manager. It took over three large properties which had been selected by Mathew Holmes, an Otago merchant. In 1869 it absorbed the holdings of another pastoral company, the New Zealand and Otago Agricultural and Land Investment Association, bringing its total acreage to almost 500,000 acres. Three years earlier, the New Zealand and Australian Land Company had been formed in Glasgow, taking over estates in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Otago and Southland. Its holdings amounted to 186,000 acres of freehold, mostly in New Zealand, and 1.2 million acres of leasehold, mostly in Australia. The Company was also managed by James Morton and in 1875 he proposed that the two companies be amalgamated. In 1877 a new company was formed by a private Act of Parliament, taking over the interests of the two older companies. It had a capital of £2.5 million. The head office was initially at Glasgow, but moved to Edinburgh in 1879. Morton was briefly general manager of the new company, but in 1878 he stood aside in favour of William Soltau Davidson.
Davidson had migrated to New Zealand in 1865 and had been employed by the Canterbury and Otago Association, first as a shepherd and ultimately as inspector of estates. He remained the general manager of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company until shortly before his death in 1924. He and his New Zealand superintendent, Thomas Brydone, played a leading part in the establishment of the frozen meat trade in the 1880s. From the beginning, Davidson believed that Australia was more suitable than New Zealand for large scale pastoralism and his plan was to release capital from freeholds in New Zealand and re-invest in leaseholds in Australia. The withdrawal from New Zealand began in the last years of the nineteenth century and by 1910 the Company retained only two estates in the South Island. Between 1880 and 1914 its sheep flocks in Australia rose from 257,000 to 1.6 million and its cattle herds rose from 1100 to 100,400. It owned or leased over 50 stations in New South Wales and Queensland and in this period it began to acquire estates in Western Australia as well. It opened an office in Sydney in 1908, while its office in Dunedin was closed in 1917.
Under Davidson's successors, the Company continued to be the largest woolgrower in Australia. After World War II, it lost some of its largest properties when they were taken over for soldier settlement, but during the 1950s wool boom it purchased several new stations. By the early 1960s resumptions and rationalisations had reduced the number of properties to 22, extending from Charleville in Queensland to Yathroo in Western Australia. In 1968 the Company was taken over by Dalgety and New Zealand Loan Ltd., which in the next ten years proceeded to sell off all the stations.
General Managers of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1877-1878 James Morton | |
| 1878-1924 William S. Davidson (joint manager 1916-24) | |
| 1916-1928 William Bonnar (joint manager 1916-24) | |
| 1928-1936 Samuel McCall-McCowan | |
| 1936-1946 T. Dangerfield |
Item Descriptions
Series. Minute Books, March 1862 - April 1962
18 items
Minutes of meetings of directors of New Zealand and Otago Agricultural and Land Investment Association, March 1862 - August 1868 (File [1])
Minutes of meetings of directors of Canterbury and Otago Association, May 1865 - October 1877 (File [2])
Minutes of general meetings of Canterbury and Otago Association, November 1865 - June 1877 (File [3])
Minutes of meetings of directors of Canterbury and Otago Association, December 1866 - April 1876 (File [4])
Minutes of meetings of directors of Canterbury and Otago Association, May 1876 - October 1877 (File [5])
Minutes of meetings of directors of New Zealand and Australian Land Company, March 1866 - January 1867 (File [6])
Minutes of meetings of directors of New Zealand and Australian Land Company, March 1866 - October 1877 (File [7])
Agenda book of meetings of directors of New Zealand and Australian Land Company, with notes by the chairman, December 1866 - November 1873 (File [8])
Agenda book of meetings of directors of New Zealand and Australian Land Company, with notes by the chairman, November 1873 - October 1877 (File [9])
Minutes of general meetings of New Zealand and Australian Land Company, March 1867 - June 1877 (File [10])
Minutes of meetings of directors of New Zealand and Australian Land Company, November 1877 - November 1886 (File [11])
Minutes of meetings of directors of New Zealand and Australian Land Company, December 1886 - May 1900 (File [12])
Minutes of meetings of directors of New Zealand and Australian Land Company, June 1900 - July 1910 (File [13])
Minutes of meetings of directors of New Zealand and Australian Land Company, August 1910 - September 1921 (File [14])
Minutes of meetings of directors of New Zealand and Australian Land Company, October 1921 - April 1934 (File [15])
Minutes of meetings of directors of New Zealand and Australian Land Company, May 1934 - October 1941 (File [16])
Series. Balance Sheets, March 1868 - March 1877
2 itemsSeries. Letterbooks of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, 1863 - September 1963
223 itemsThe letter books, general letter books, outward Australian correspondence and outward New Zealand correspondence all contain indexes.
Subseries. Letter books, October 1867 - October 1877
8 itemsThe letter books contain copies of letters written by James Morton, the first general manager of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company. Australian and New Zealand recipients include Thomas Brydone (Dunedin), Archibald Buchanan (Chinchilla, Queensland), John Douglas (Dunedin), Bank of New South Wales (London), Bank of Otago (London), Douglas, Alderson & Co. (Dunedin), Holmes, White & Co. (Melbourne), B.D. Morehead & Co. (Brisbane), G.G. Russell & Co. (Dunedin) and Russell, Ritchie & Co. (Dunedin).
Subseries. General letter books, October 1877 - July 1945
104 itemsThe letter books mostly contain copies of letters sent to individuals, companies and government agencies in Britain, but there are occasional letters to individuals and companies in Australia and New Zealand. The letters were mostly written by the Company's secretaries (James Ellis, William Bonnar, J. Norman Bonnar, T. Dangerfield and Eric Burnet), but there are as well letters from the general managers and the colonial inspector. The legibility of the early letter books is variable.
Subseries. Outward Australian correspondence, May 1882 - March 1912
30 itemsThe great bulk of the letters were written by the general manager, W.S. Davidson, and the secretary, James Ellis and William Bonnar (who succeeded Ellis in 1886). The recipients were White, Alford & Co. (Melbourne), Dennys, Lascelles, Austin & Co. (Melbourne) and, from 1908 onwards, the New Zealand and Australian Land Company (Sydney). Occasionally, letters were addressed to individuals.
Subseries. Outward New Zealand correspondence, May 1882 - March 1912
30 itemsThe great bulk of the letters were written by the general manager, W.S. Davidson, and the secretary, James Ellis and his successor William Bonnar. They were sent to the Dunedin office of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company. Occasionally letters were addressed to individuals, such as John Angus.
Subseries. Outward colonial correspondence, April 1879 - April 1939
10 itemsThe 1879-80 letters were written by W.S. Davidson and James Ellis and were sent to the Dunedin office of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company and its Australian agent, Alford & Co. in Melbourne. The 1912-39 letters written by the general managers (W.S. Davidson, William Bonnar, Samuel McCall-McCowan and T. Dangerfield), the secretaries (William Bonnar, J. Norman Bonnar and Eric Burnet) and the colonial inspector (J.C. Thierens). The letters were sent to the Sydney office of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, the Dunedin office of the Company and, from 1917 onwards, the National Mortgage and Agency Company in Dunedin. The letters were often addressed to particular individuals, such as Samuel McCall-McCowan and R.C. Botterill in Sydney, R.H. Botterill in Perth, and John Angus in Dunedin.
Subseries. Foreign letter books, Australia and New Zealand, March 1882 - May 1934
4 itemsThe letter books contain copies of letters from W.S. Davidson and William Bonnar, the general manager and secretary of the Company, to the Company offices in Sydney and Dunedin and to individuals and companies in Australia and New Zealand. The Australian recipients include J.C. Alford (Melbourne), James Ashton (Sydney), R.C. Botterill (Sydney), Dennys, Lascelles, Austin & Co. (Melbourne), John Leahy (Brisbane), Samuel McCall-McCowan (Sydney), Donald McLarty (Jerilderie) and B.D. Morehead & Co. (Melbourne). The New Zealand recipients include Thomas Brydone (Dunedin), Canterbury Frozen Meat Export Co. (Christchurch), James Drysdale, Robert Jackson, National Mortgage and Agency Co. (Christchurch) and South Canterbury Refridgerating Co. (Timeru).
Subseries. Inwards letters registers, August 1932 - July 1962
7 itemsThe registers, known as letters inwards books, give the registered number and date of each letter, the name and address of the sender, and a brief note on the contents.
Subseries. New Zealand and Australian correspondence, September 1882 - October 1907
5 itemsThe three letter books contain copies of correspondence between the general manager and secretary of the company and employees and agents in New Zealand and Australia. The correspondents include William Davidson (Edinburgh), James Ellis (Edinburgh), John Angus (Dunedin), Thomas Brydone (Dunedin), W. Cunningham Smith (Dunedin), R.A. Hopkins (Wellshot, Queensland), John Lindsay, J.M. Ritchie, and White, Alford & Co. (Melbourne).
Kawarau letter book, June 1884 - November 1888 (File [478])
Kawarau was a property in Otago owned by the New Zealand and Australian Land Company. Most of the letters are from James Melvin of the Boroughloch Brewery in Edinburgh to Thomas Brydone and the National Mortgage and Agency Company of New Zealand in Dunedin.
Private letter book, June 1887 - October 1907 (File [479])
Copies of private letters written by W.S. Davidson and William Bonnar, the general manager and secretary of the Company. The recipients include Robert Stewart, the chairman of the company, J.C. Alford (Melbourne), Thomas Brydone (Dunedin), F.J. Croaker (Quirindi, NSW), George Drysdale (Melbourne), Dennys, Lascelles, Austin & Co. (Melbourne), R.A. Hopkins (Wellshot, Queensland), David Murray (Glasgow) and J.M. Ritchie (Dunedin).
Subseries. Colonial cablegrams, April 1888 - September 1963
8 itemsCopies of cables received from or despatches to New Zealand and Australia.
Subseries. Reports and balance sheets, 1867 - 1926
12 items
Private report by the general manager, W.S. Davidson, to the directors of the Company (198ff), March 1882 (File [488])
Private report by the general manager, W.S. Davidson, to the directors of the Company, 1886-10, 1887-04 (File [489])
Includes a supplementary report on reduction of capital. Main report 141ff and supplementary report 21 ff.
Report by the general manager, W.S. Davidson, to the directors of the Company (71ff), January 1890 (File [490])
Report by the general manager, W.S. Davidson, on the Company's estates in New Zealand, January 1896 - March 1896 (File [491])
Report covers the estates Clydevale, Edendale, Hakateremea, Kawarau, The Levels, Moeraki and Pareora.
Printed reports of the annual general meetings of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, 1877 - 1909 (File [492])
Series. Miscellaneous papers, 1865 - 1946
32 items
Newspaper cutting book, with cuttings from British, Australian and New Zealand papers (100ff), 1906 - 1909 (File [506])
Newspaper cutting book, with cuttings from British and Australian papers (300ff), 1933 - 1946 (File [507])
Volume containing miscellaneous papers relating to the New Zealand and Australian Land Company and the Canterbury and Otago Association, 1882 - 1886 (File [508])
Includes railway rates for wheat and oats, statistics of frozen meat exports by the company, notes of shareholders, lists of mortgage debentures.
Report of Hogg Lindley (Lloyds), average adjustor, concerning loss of SS Minderoo off Port Hedland, Western Australia, September 1935 - 30 December 1936 (File [509])
Private report by William Drysdale to directors of the company on its properties in Australia and New Zealand (25pp.), 31 October 1883 (File [510])
Notes on the New Zealand properties of the Company by Thomas Bydone (typescript, 12pp.), November 1889 (File [511])
New Zealand and Australian Land Company. Memorandum in reference to the real estate of the Company and its purchases and sales of land, 1888 (File [512])
Report of the trial before the High Court of Justiciary, Her Majesty's Advocate against the directors and the manager of the City of Glasgow Bank, 1879 (File 513)
Report written by Charles Tennant. William Morton, the general manager of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, and two of its directors were implicated in the collapse of the Bank in 1878 (476ff).
Agreement between the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, the liquidators of the City of Glasgow Bank, and John Young, June 1879, the 1882 City of Glasgow Bank (Liquidation) Act, and memorandum and articles of association of the Assets Company Ltd, 22 May 1882 (File [514])
New South Wales Supreme Court. Joint print of documents, Shaw and another against Assets Company Ltd. and another (199pp.), 1885 (File [515])
Canterbury and Otago Association Ltd. Resolutions, reports and valuations, 1865 - 1877 (File [516])
Contains memorandum and articles of association, 28 April 1865, with signatures of subscribers. (3 copies) The second and third copies contain special resolutions, inventories of valuations, reports to shareholders, reports of committees.
New Zealand and Australian Land Company. Prospectus, memorandum and articles of association, reports and resolutions (61ff), 1866 - 1872 (File [517])
New Zealand and Australian Land Company. Prospectus, memorandum and articles of association, report and resolutions (126pp.), 1866 - 1877 (File [518])
Printed documents relating to the amalgamation of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company and the Canterbury and Otago Association (295pp.), 1876 - 1877 (File [519])
Reports by R.H. Botterill and others on Western Australian estates, July 1909 - December 1909 (File [545])
Reports by R.C. Botterill on New South Wales and Western Australian estates, February 1924 - March 1925 (File [546])
Reports by R.C. Botterill on New South Wales and Western Australian estates, April 1925 - March 1926 (File [547])
Series. Files on taxation, land sales, station realisations and clearing sales, 1926 - 1949
16 itemsSeries. Miscellaneous papers, 1866 - 1957
11 items
Miscellaneous legal documents, 1866 - 1919 (File [609])
Includes contract of sale between Glasgow Association and New Zealand and Australian Land Company (1866), New Zealand and Australian Land Company Limited Act (1877), Memorandum and articles of association of New Zealand and Australian Land Company (1877), special resolutions of New Zealand and Australian Land Company (1879-1919), New Zealand and Australian Land Company Act (1888) and cases and opinions of counsel (1887-1919).
Miscellaneous financial papers, 1872 - 1932 (File [610])
Includes statement showing distribution of stock amongst proprietors at date of formation (1877), reports to shareholders, a memorandum with regard to debenture stocks (1905), and a bank book with the Bank of Scotland (1930-32).
Miscellaneous documents relating to the Company's properties, 1867 - 1909 (File [611])
13 items
Report on properties in New Zealand and Australia by James Melvin (printed 17pp.), 19 June 1887 (Item [661/1])
Private report on the estates belonging to the New Zealand and Australian Land Company by W.S. Davidson (printed 127pp.), November 1878 (Item [611/2])
Report on the estates belonging to the New Zealand and Australian Land Company by W.S. Davidson (printed 64pp.), April 1879 (Item [611/3])
Thomas Brydone's notes on New Zealand properties of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, Dunedin (printed 15pp.) (Item [611/4])
Notes describing the freehold lands offered for sale and leasing by the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, 1880 (Item [611/5])
Includes general remarks on farming in New Zealand, Edinburgh (printed 93pp.).
Information regarding the freehold lands in New Zealand offered for sale by the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, 1882 (Item [611/6])
Includes general remarks on farming in New Zealand, Edinburgh (printed 111pp.).
The Cheviot Estate, 13 November 1893 - 17 November 1893 (Item [611/7])
Includes particulars, terms and conditions of disposal and occupation of 33,474 acres open on 13 and 17 November 1893 in Wellington (printed 51pp.).
The Ardgowan Estate, Otago, 12 May 1896 (Item [611/8])
Includes the particulars, terms and conditions of disposal and occupation of 4,234 acres open on Tuesday 12 May 1896, Wellington (printed 24pp.).
The Pareora No. 2 settlement, Canterbury, New Zealand, 22 March 1900 (Item [611/9])
Includes the particulars, terms and conditions of disposal and occupation of 8064 acres 3 roods open on Thursday 22 March 1900, Wellington (printed 31pp.).
Canterbury and Otago Association and New Zealand and Otago Agricultural and Land Investment Association: comparative valuations, 1867 - 1876 (Item [611/11])
Papers relating to the liquidation of the City Bank of Glasgow, 1879 - 1884 (File [613])
The papers cover the liquidators' interest in the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, and the Assets Company, including correspondence, reports and a list of shareholders.
Manuscript notes and printed pamphlets on the history of the frozen meat trade from Australia and New Zealand, the development of dairying in New Zealand, and the establishment of the Corriedale breed of sheep in New Zealand, 1882 - 1957 (File [614])
George Barclay. Obituary notice of David Davidson, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1892 (File [615])
History of the pure-bred stud flocks of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company Ltd., Dunedin, 1905 (4pp.) (File [617])
Includes a letter from C.G. White (Wellington) to Eric Burnet, 13 July 1949.
Series RHP. Maps, 1879 - 1928
47 items
Map of Western Australia, with the Land Company's stations marked. Perth, F.W. Simpson, 1924 (File RHP 12454)
Map of New South Wales, including an index to pastoral stations and marked to show Land Company stations. Sydney, H.E.C. Robinson, n.d. (File RHP 12456)
Plan of the Walhallow and Piallaway Estates in the counties of Buckland, Pottinger and Parry, New South Wales, n.d. (File RHP 12459)
Map of Queensland, including the Gregory South district, marked to show Land Company stations. Brisbane, Surveyor-General's Office, 1897 (File RHP 1260)
Plan of portions of the Dromore Estate in the county of Beresford, New South Wales, 1922 (File RHP 12461)
Plan of Edgeroi in the county of Jamison, New South Wales. Melbourne, Mason, Firth & McCutcheon, n.d. (File RHP 12464)