David McLaren (colonial manager)

He did not have the practical skills and knowledge of his predecessor, Samuel Stephens, but he was an effective money-manager and by prudent investment (and some constructive bookkeeping[4]) he improved the fortunes of the Company and its subsidiary South Australian Bank, while making few friends.

[1] He appears to fit the stereotype of the parsimonious Scot: the editor of the Register on the occasion of his farewell dinner wrote of a man wielding "immense influence for good or for evil ... object of divided feelings ... (not always acting on) right or sound and comprehensive views".

And the triumphs of his administration, the New Port and the Company's banking operations, he ascribes to G. S. Kingston and Edward Stephens respectively.

[6] In January 1841 he returned to London, where his family joined him, as the Company's manager and continued to run its business profitably, and to the benefit of the Colony.

His social life in the colony appears to have centred on his church — he acted as minister for a Baptist congregation which from July 1838 met at W. Finlayson's cottage in Rundle Street, later the site of Charles Birks' shop.