a new business venture, the New Zealand Agricultural Company. Larnach's farming investments were turning sour due to the rabbit problems, and Larnach sought to sell his lands to British investors—this prompted considerable condemnation in New Zealand, as Larnach was seen as trying to deceive the British as to the quality of the investments. The New Zealand Agricultural Company was not a success, and the affair cost Larnach many friends and allies in New Zealand. With land prices falling and his timber company also suffering, Larnach's financial position was declining. Larnach became depressed, and withdrew from society. He is reported to have begun drinking heavily. He eventually became insolvent, although Larnach Castle and various other assets had been transferred to the ownership of his wife, Eliza, and were therefore spared. In 1880, his wife died, and Larnach married Mary Cockburn Alleyne, her half-sister, in 1882. She died in 1887, and in 1891, he married his third wife, Constance de Bathe Brandon. In 1888, he briefly attempted to restart his career in Melbourne, but returned to Dunedin within a year. In 1882, Larnach returned to politics, winning the Peninsula electorate in . He devoted considerable effort to seeking government assistance for the New Zealand Agricultural Company. In 1885, he became Minister of Mines in the second Stout–Vogel Ministry. Larnach lost the , but became a Member of Parliament again through the electorate in a by-election. He affiliated himself with the Liberal Party, which was a somewhat surprising decision, given his associations with the business elite that the Liberals opposed. Suicide In 1894, Larnach became a director of the Colonial Bank of New Zealand, having previously become a shareholder, but the Bank collapsed the following year leaving Larnach on the brink of financial ruin. In an explanation to Parliament on 25 October 1895 he said that being an interested party, he refrained from voting on banking legislation. But on that day he mistakenly voted for a third reading of the Banking Act Amendment Bill (which involved the Colonial Bank), thinking he was voting on the following bill, the Horowhenua Block Bill. In 1898, Larnach locked himself in a committee room at Parliament and shot himself with a revolver. His surviving family fought a battle over his will. Owen Marshall wrote a novel The Larnachs (2011), based on the possibility that the tragedy resulted from an affair between Larnach's third wife Constance and his