The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Larnach, Hon. William James Mudie
Larnach, Hon. William James Mudie, C.M.G., sometime Colonial Treasurer and Minister of Railways in New Zealand, went to Otago, N.Z., in Sept. 1867, as manager of the Bank of Otago (afterwards merged in the National Bank of New Zealand). In 1866 he was returned to the House of Representatives for Dunedin; and in 1877, having carried a vote of no-confidence against the Whitaker-Atkinson Ministry, he joined the administration formed by Sir George Grey on Oct. 14th as Colonial Treasurer and Minister of Public Works. Subsequently he went to England in connection with a Colonial loan, but returned in 1880, the Grey Government having in the meantime been ousted. In the same year he re-entered Parliament. Mr. Larnach was Minister of Mines and of the Marine in the Stout-Vogel Government, which entered office on Sept. 3rd, 1884, and went out on Oct. 8th, 1887. Mr. Larnach married Miss Eliza Jane Guise. He was created C.M.G. in 1879. At the general election in Dec. 1890 he failed to secure his return to the House of Representatives for the Peninsula.