As part of our gardening trial project, we stashed a few daffodil bulbs at the foot of the McNamara plot. You could easily miss the diminutive headstone on this plot, which has three interments.
The first interment was George McNamara. He was a compositor working at the Government Printing office. George and several colleagues placed ‘certain charges’ against the Government Printing Office. The nature of these charges was withheld from the public at the time. The file is available at Archives New Zealand (R24817225). It begins:
’12 August 1895
When, this day week, we presented to you a paper setting forth our complaints against Mr Costall’s management of the Government Printing Office we were aware that in it we had left undealt with the gravest ground of complaint that existing – namely, that his management was large influenced by others’ knowledge of his moral character; and having fully considered the possible consequence to him and ourselves of the step we are now taking, we beg leave to express out dliberate opinion that Mr Costall’s character is such as to render him unfit to hold the important post he now holds; for we make the following statements’
These are summarised:
- He did not consider Mr Roberts for a permanent position , because as a member of the same church in which Mr Costall officiated as pastor, Mr Roberts sought an explanation from him ‘being in a disreputable locality under suspicious circumstances’
- He cruelly threatened Mr Roberts with superannuation because some years earlier Mr Roberts had taken part in a church enquiry into grave charges of immoral conduct made against Mr Costall
- That Mr Costall spent so much time in the Girls’ [admin] Room, that he was hindering them from their work. That he has earnt the contempt and dislike of the girls ‘by his unseemly attentions’ and for a long time ‘making it a rule to be at the bottom of the spiral staircase all the time the girls were descending it’.
- The Mr Costall made frequent visits to Mr and Mrs McCleary’s house when Mr McCleary was at work. That his morning calls of several hours are ‘already a matter of common talk’
- That during the recess Mr Costall was frequently visited on the office premises between the hours of 7 and 8pm by a woman (or women) and that during these visits the doors were locked and the blind drawn, and that Mr Costall saw no necessity in seeing the women home.
- That 3 months ago a woman entered the print office and in the presence of 20 – 30 people asked for some money she alleged Mr Costall owed her. When he denied it or knowing her she retorted ‘You don’t know me; well; you ought to; you have had the use of my body, at all events, you little *****monger’.
- That his name has become a byword and reproach owing to his indiscretions
George and his colleagues were initially represented by Sir Robert Stout but counsel for both sides was excluded and a Royal Commission appointed. Bookbinders, compositors and machinists were called as witnesses. Mr Costall had witnesses to cover him in all instances including Mrs McCleary’s visiting nurse and the night watchman located at the Print Office.
Eventually the Government Printer was exonerated and the three men dismissed.
A month after their dismissal, the Government Printer, Mr S. Costall, resigned. It was presumed as a result of the charges made against him although officially, he was simply retiring. A deputation of employees from the Printing Office petitioned Hon. W. Hall-Jones for clemency for the dismissed men who agreed to lay the matter before Cabinet. (The files are held at National Archives. These would outline their grievances, but they have not been digitised).
George was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the end of 1897 and he died at his home in Pitarua Street in Thorndon on 24th May 1898. He left a widow, Mary, and four children aged between 18 months and 11 years. His wife petitioned the government for a compassionate allowance, claiming that his illness had been hastened by the enquiry. They agreed to review the request, but disputed her reasoning. The outcome was not recorded in the newspaper.
The second interment was that of George’s daughter, Mary Honora, who died in 1908 aged 21. And thirdly, his wife Mary, who died in 1943.
Plot: *ROM CATH/A/21
By Julia Kennedy
