Two years later he bought out Brown's partnership share for over £40,000. Becoming a part of the business community again, he became involved with the Bank of New Zealand, the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, the New Zealand Insurance Company, and related companies. Campbell had a marked philanthropic interest in the advancement of education. He donated a sum of £500 and a block of land on the corner of Pitt and Wellington Streets and a brick school building was built there to house St Peter's School (a predecessor of St Peter's College, Auckland). He founded Auckland's first school of art in 1878 and supported it for 11 years. He was a founder of Auckland Grammar School having become the third chairman of the school in 1879.. When depression overwhelmed Auckland in 1885 and the Stock Market collapsed in 1886, there began a desperate struggle for financial survival. Campbell sold several businesses and properties, concentrating his energies on Brown Campbell and Company, a brewery and liquor importer. Campbell retained his properties at One Tree Hill partly because he wanted to create a suitable residence for his family. He envisaged an Italianate mansion similar to James Williamson's at Hillsborough, surrounded by an elegant estate. He set about planting trees to create a suitable landscape garden. His wife Emma, however, had other ideas and the house, Killbryde, was eventually built in Parnell, a location much more handy to town. This property is now part of the Parnell Rose Gardens and Dove Myer Robinson Park. The house was demolished in 1924. In his later years, Campbell was concerned about the increasing suburban development of Auckland and decided to donate his remaining farmland at One Tree Hill to the city as a public amenity to be called Corinth Park – named after a part of Greece which Campbell had admired on his travels. Winifred the only surviving child of John and Emma Campbell married Herbert Cyril Orde Murray a lieutenant in the 1st Gloucestershire Regiment on 10 December 1889. The presentation of the park would probably have taken place after Campbell's death in the form of a bequest had not providence intervened in the form of the Royal Tour of 1901. Cornwall Park In early 1901, Campbell was approached to be Mayor of Auckland for the royal visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall in June that year. Aged 83 and long