Category Archives: Post Office Scandal

Post Office Scandal! ‘The Age’ 5 September 1896 p.5

A scandal broke out in the press in 1896 when W. G. Goetz was accused of inflating prices for supplying items to the post office and bribing Thomas Carroll, a senior post office engineering employee.

In the Public Service Board inquiry, Goetz was accused of giving ‘commissions’, shouting Carroll free drinks at Flanagan’s Treasury Hotel in Queen Street (a few doors up towards Little Lonsdale Street from Goetz’s 140 Queen Street workshop), and giving Carroll a ham! (Carroll couldn’t recall if it was a Christmas or Easter ham!)

Although denying specific allegations other than over-charging for articles supplied, it seems that the crux of Goetz’s defence was basically that everyone was doing it!

Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 4 September 1896, p.6

The outcome was that several heads rolled with Carroll and a number of other officials being dismissed from service.

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