Lot 1575

Description

Ede's Gold Dealers' Calculator, a pocket book (180mm x 115mm) ready reckoner from the Victorian Goldfields, tables from '£1 per oz' to '£4.4s per oz', tables in ounces, pennyweights and grains, printed in Sydney by 'T. Daniel, York Street, Opposite the Wesleyan Chapel', with stamp on inside dust cover 'Bank of New South Wales - Geelong' and signed 'W.J.M.Larnach 1861'. The cover only fair, inside pages fine, a very interesting item of Victorian gold mining history with New Zealand historical connotations.

William James Mudie Larnach (1833-98) was a New Zealand politician and banker, most famously recognised for the construction of 'Larnach Castle' on the Otago Peninsular. Larnach was born on 27 January 1833 at Castle Forbes, Patrick Plains, Hunter River, New South Wales. In 1851 he joined the Bank of New South Wales in Victoria and served in various capacities until 1862 when he became manager of the Geelong branch of the bank. He had a very illustrious career and life, which finally ended with his suicide at Parliament House, Wellington, New Zealand in 1898.