Whangārei court staff member Kevin McCartain farewelled after 50 years

Kevin McCartain started as a 16-year-old and retired 50 years later as the longest-serving Ministry of Justice staff member in Northland. Photo / Tania Whyte

Kevin McCartain started at the Whangārei courthouse fresh out of high school and retired two years after being eligible for superannuation.

The history of the Whangārei Law Courts on Bank St is like the back of his hand and the sexagenarian was yesterday bidding adieu to a building that was his second home for half a century, signing off as the longest-serving employee of the Ministry of Justice in Northland.

"I've been going into that building from the age of 16 till 67 and you just get used to going in whenever you feel like. And then all of a sudden to have to go to the front door and ask permission to go in will be a very strange thing because I've had that relationship with the building and the extension."

Raised in a state house in Otangarei, the 67-year-old grandfather first set foot on the courthouse's site at the age of 8, exploring half a dozen rooms that were built in the 1930s under the ground floor.

Rumour had it the rooms were built as a bomb shelter during World War II in case New Zealand was attacked but the plan was later shelved.

His mum pointed out a job ad in a newspaper for a cadet at the courthouse in 1971 and McCartain started two months after the building opened in October that year. As the saying goes, the rest is history.

The building has more than doubled in size over the decades.

"I never dreamt that I would one day end up working there. I came in as a teenager and I
am leaving as someone who's been eligible for superannuation for two years. All my adult life and plus has been working there."

Kevin McCartain will have more time on his hands for gardening after retiring from court. Photo / Tania Whyte

The previous courthouse was on Railway Rd where the testing station currently is, and it was only an old house-type building up until 1971. The one before that was what is now the Jovial Judge Tavern on Walton St.

"I just fell into the job. But I did enjoy it. What I enjoyed doing was, because it was a paperwall, there were no computers so we were manually processing everything, and we got piles and piles of work and I found it a challenge to plough through it."

Computers and sound recording equipment came much later, although McCartain still despises the latest technology for a good reason.

He was the first court staff member to operate a Sony recording system with speakers on desks and he had to get the tape ready, come into court and push the button to record.

"We were having a defendant hearing on a careless driving charge and I came into court, got things started, the case took about half a day, and then the defendant was found guilty, and he appealed. When they appeal, you have to type it all back, and the court reporters came back and said 'it's blank'.

"What had happened was I forgot to push the record button. The High Court didn't have the notes of evidence so he got a re-hearing. It was a bit of a disaster but looking back, it was quite humorous. I got kicked in the butt a bit for doing that. Not long after that, I got another promotion which was quite ironic," he chuckled.

He's always liked the challenge of the job and the variety.

"In the first 10 years, you get rotated around different sections every six months and so within two years, I had covered all the jurisdictions of the court.

"I've been taken out on a tugboat to a ship in Bream Bay to climb the mast a few metres to arrest the ship, we've administered bankrupt estates that brought you into contact with a whole lot of very interesting characters.

"I've married people, probably over 100, including my own grandmother who got remarried and I did the ceremony at the courthouse. We did liquor licensing back in those days, licensing of motor vehicle dealers, real estate agents, the whole gamut."

His annual salary when he started was $2400 a year or between $35 and $40 a week after tax. He paid $5 to his mum for board.

Kevin McCartain outside the Whangārei Law Courts with a writs of sale register he used in the 1970s. Photo / NZME

One thing that puzzles him a little is the current number of jury trials, with around 250 each year compared with 10-20 when he started, while the population of
Northland has only grown by two or three times over the past 50 years.

"There were gangs in the 70s but they are larger now in numbers. But whether it was gangs or not it's the rise in drug crimes, particularly with P which virtually didn't exist in the 70s. Cannabis cultivation and supply did exist.

"There's a much higher volume of sexual violence charges now, although stats say they are still very much under-reported. In the 70s, if you got one or two sexual offence charges a year, that would be on the higher side in Northland," he recalled.

Lawyers and judges stood out for McCartain in different ways.

"Our recently departed judges de Ridder, McDonald and Judge Harvey, they've been here a long time and they always impress me with their vast knowledge of the law. These three judges stayed the longest in my career."

McCartain's daughter Melissa Russell and her husband Shaun are both lawyers based in Whangārei.

McCartain says giving evidence against two sitting judges accused of falsely claiming travel allowances of $240 a day in early 1997 was the worst he has had to deal with in his long career.

The Serious Fraud Office prosecuted Judges Martin Beattie and Robert Hesketh and McCartain gave evidence against the former in the High Court at Auckland.

"It was a terrible time because you're there to uphold the integrity of the courts and all of a sudden you're embroiled in a situation where you're actually a witness against one of your own judges. I had to give evidence and it was on TV news every night. I was there for two days giving evidence.

"However, the point I'll make is 99.9 per cent of judges in the history of courts in New Zealand conduct themselves in the manner expected of them and the public can have an extreme amount of confidence. Courts in New Zealand are rated highly internationally."

Judge Hesketh pleaded guilty and lost his job, while Judge Beattie was found not guilty and was transferred to sit on the Accident Compensation Appeal Authority.

On post-retirement plans, McCartain says he will get back on the golf course and do other bits and pieces around his Raumanga house.