From New Zealand’s Jewish Past: Joseph Edward Nathan – developed New Zealand’s export dairy industry and the formation of one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies
Joseph was born on 2 March 1835 in Houndsditch, part of the East End of London.
Joseph Nathan
He was one of eight children and the sixth son of Rachel and Edward Nathan. He was a sickly child, having very little formal education and at the age of twelve started work in his father’s struggling tailoring shop. At the age of eighteen, he emigrated to Australia, arriving in Melbourne in December 1853. He opened a miners’ supply store behind a hotel in Little Collins Street, but this was not successful due to a lack of funds.
He then decided to move to New Zealand, where his sister Kate, who had married a Wellington merchant – Jacob Joseph, a relative of the Nathans – were living. In 1856 Joseph visited Wellington where Jacob, who was planning a trip to England, offered him employment which Joseph accepted on condition that he receive a salary of three hundred pounds per annum plus a share of the profits. Once his employment was secure, Joseph returned to Melbourne, wound up his affairs and, during his visit, met and married Dinah Marks on 18 November 1857. The couple returned to Wellington in December 1857, set up home and went on to produce thirteen children, of whom eleven – seven boys and four girls – were to survive to adulthood.
Jacob Joseph and Company imported goods from England for supply to the retail trade, all of which were unloaded in the company’s Wellington warehouse and orders were dispatched by horse-drawn wagons or bullock carts. In time, the company bought wool from local farmers for export and added Wellington butter to their goods. In January 1861, Joseph was made a partner and the family’s home was in the company’s storehouse on Wellington’s foreshore. Joseph was an observant Jew and ensured that his company was closed on the Sabbath. He became one of the leaders of the Wellington Hebrew Congregation, an initiator of the synagogue being built – which was consecrated in 1870 – and became president from 1870 to 1874.
In June 1873, the business partnership of Joseph and Jacob was dissolved, due to Jacob’s failing sight, his age and the difficulties that were taking place within the business. Joseph then purchased the business assets and set up his company as Joseph Nathan and Company. He built a new four-storeyed office building in central Wellington and a substantial home for the family. In 1876 Joseph set up a London office and secured funds for capital expansion as the business was on the verge of bankruptcy. Joseph brought his eldest son David into the business and together they rebuilt the company with David doing much of the travelling by coastal vessel and on horseback with saddle bags full of samples. By the end of the 1870s, he had acquired an interest in a number of retail outlets, including a Ready Money Store – a very well-known emporium in Palmerston North.
Joseph kept in touch with politics and was always mindful of antisemitic attitudes in the colonial society, and, whilst he supported the economic policies of Premier Julius Vogel, he was more interested in developing trade and commerce and his family interests. He went on to become a foundation director of the Wellington Patent Slip Company, which was formed to take over the assets and construction of the City Pacific Mail Terminal in 1871, which was officially opened in March 1873 and in 1876, his next project was as a founding member of the Wellington and Wairarapa Grand Trunk Tramway Company. Joseph’s business interests continued to grow with directorships in varying companies such as Wellington and Wairarapa Grand Trunk Tramway Company, the Wellington Gas Company, the New Zealand Candle Company and the Wellington Woollen Manufacturing Company. He was President of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce in 1881 and helped set up the Wellington Harbour Board in 1880, and, with others, inaugurated the Wellington Manawatu Railway Company in 1881. As its Chairman of Directors, Joseph officiated at the ‘last spike’ railway completion ceremony on 3 November 1886.
From 1887 onwards, Joseph and Dinah lived in England. On one of their trips, Dinah took ill and passed away at sea between Portugal and Madeira. From then on, Joseph visited New Zealand several times, transferred his directorships to his eldest son and the company – Joseph Nathan – became registered as a limited company in London in 1899. His sons were all involved in some way in the business – Louis, Maurice and later Alexander in England with David, Philip, Frederick and later Charles in New Zealand. Joseph still wished to be the company chairman and retained control of finances.
From 1901 to 1903 the family negotiated for the rights to manufacture dried milk in New Zealand. They employed an engineer to install milk-drying machinery in their dairy factory, which was near Feilding in New Zealand’s North Island and by 1904, they built a new, specifically designed dried-milk factory at another area of the North Island known as Bunnythorpe. From here, they attempted to sell baby food branded “Lacto”, but this brand name did not work for them. However, Joseph came up with the product name ‘’Glaxo ‘’ and the company was then registered in 1906 but was still not an instant success. Alexander travelled to England in 1907 to organise the marketing of dried milk products using the slogan ‘Builds Bonnie Babies’. However, it is recorded that in 1908 “The Glaxo Mothers’ Help’’ book – which was a guide to proper parenting from the ‘’Glaxo Mothers’ Help Bureau’’ apparently by 1915 became ‘’the most successful form of advertising of the present day’’ by the Advertising World magazine.
Joseph died in London on 2 May 1912. Through energy and business foresight, Joseph had played a major part in developing New Zealand’s export dairy industry. In 1919, seven years after Joseph’s death, the Glaxo brand was developed from Joseph’s cooperative farming ventures and the pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Wellcome developed in part from his company, becoming one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the worl
d – known today as GlaxoSmithKline.
The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:-
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Wikipedia; National Library of New Zealand; History of the Jews in New Zealand – L M Goldman; listing in the New Zealand Hall of Fame; GSK History and Heritage
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