No Better Death Page 3
Malone and the Stratford Rifle Volunteers outside the town’s post office.
Alexander Turnbull Library
Malone in 1902, as seen on the Stratford Rifle Volunteers shield dedicated to Elinor Malone.
Malone Family Collection Wellington (now in ATL)
This photograph, taken in 1908 at the time of the Wellington district Easter manoeuvres, shows a clean-shaven and determined William Malone.
Malone Family Collection Wellington (now in ATL)
Four of William and Elinor Malone’s children at their Opunake Road farm near Stratford in about 1902. From left: Terry, Edmond, Norah and Brian.
Malone Family Collection Wellington (now in ATL)
Elinor Malone later in life.
Malone Family Collection Wellington (now in ATL)
Ida Malone in about 1906.
Malone Family Collection Wellington (now in ATL)
Tragedy struck Malone’s life on 18 June 1904 when his wife Elinor and the baby boy she was giving birth to died at their home in New Plymouth. At the time of his wife’s death Malone was in Stratford.34 He did not remain a widower for long. On 11 September 1905, in Christchurch, Malone, who one newpaper described as ‘a highly esteemed Taranaki settler’, married Ida Katherine Jemima Withers, who had, it appears, for some years been Elinor’s companion and a tutor for the children. Ida, whom Malone generally referred to as Mater [Latin for mother], was 16 years younger than her new husband and was a strikingly attractive woman.35 Their father’s marriage seems, at least initially, to have led to some friction between Ida and her stepchildren, but later they became very fond of each other. Certainly before the outbreak of war in 1914 the Malone household appears to have been a generally happy one.36
Malone was utterly devoted to his wife, but near the end of his life realised that he had on occasion neglected her and his family because he was so busy with his business and military affairs. He also admitted that he could be ‘hard, and unforgiving’.37 William and Ida Malone had three children, Denis George Withers, who was born in July 1906, William Bernard, known as Barney, who was born in December 1907 and Elinor Mary, known as Mollie or Molly, who was born in March 1910. All three children were born in New Plymouth.38 Malone was a loving, but strict father whose children were rather in awe of him.39
Through his farming and legal practice, Malone acquired significant assets. When he was living in New Plymouth he had a substantial house built called the ‘The Farlands’, and when he returned to Stratford he had another large house built, also called ‘The Farlands’. The Stratford house included seven bedrooms, a dining room, drawing room, study and billiard room and was set in large attractive grounds that included a tennis court. Several domestic staff, including two maids and a gardener, were employed by Malone at ‘The Farlands’. Malone was a keen gardener, who would often work in the grounds before changing into his business clothes and walking nearly five kilometres into his office in Stratford.40 In 1905 his land holdings consisted of 445 acres of freehold rural land, 54 acres of freehold suburban land and approximately 3 acres of freehold town land. In partnership with H.B. Worthington he also held 1300 acres ‘occupation with the right of purchase, and of 400 acres of lease in perpetuity’ land.41 By August 1914 Malone’s assets, which included land, mortgages and other investments exceeded his liabilities by £33,450, the equivalent in today’s terms of about $5,000,000.42 In 1905, when he gave evidence to a royal commission on land tenure and settlement, he described himself as ‘a working-man, and, by the way, a solicitor and also, by the way, a farmer.’ Such multiple roles were common amongst the kind of hard-working and entrepreneurial settlers who made such a contribution to the development of New Zealand during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and of whom Malone is a good example.43
Malone (2nd from left) at the head of the ‘Blue Force’ in Wellington 19 April 1908. Alongside him are other Taranaki officers, including Lieutenant Colonel E.N.L. Okey (left) and Lieutenant Felix Bellringer (2nd from right). The original caption for the postcard was: ‘Easter Manoeuvres Wellington N.Z. 1908 Invading Forces led by Major Malone’.
ZAK Postcard, DONZ Coll
Malone was a well-educated and well-read man who took an intelligent interest in the issues of the day. He was strongly committed to the development of New Zealand in general and of Taranaki, in particular. Malone considered himself a countryman and was convinced of the superiority, both moral and physical, of country-dwellers over those who lived in towns and cities. In 1905, he stated that ‘I try to do my own thinking and I think our first duty is to see what we are doing in New Zealand in the way of building up a race and nation. Setting aside the individual for the people should be the real object in this colony. We must all agree that the people we want to build up here into a nation should be independent, free, thrifty, sturdy, and clean, both physically and morally.’44 Malone considered ‘the pioneers as being heroes – greater heroes than men who simply perform some single act of bravery. I say that those men who go into the forest and back country with their wives and families and hew out homes for themselves and live there their lifetime are true heroes. The men in the towns generation after generation are becoming less fit members of the nation. Life in town does not conduce to the sturdiness of mind, body, and even soul, which we desire to see in a nation.’45 On Imbros during the Gallipoli campaign, Malone met a Greek peasant family, which he thought ‘seemed an ideal family, natural, unsophisticated and absolutely united.’46 Such idealised conceptions of country people and Social Darwinist concepts that emphasised the dangers the modern world posed to the physical, intellectual and moral well-being of Europeans in New Zealand and elsewhere were widely held at this time.
Malone set out his personal philosophy in a lecture on work delivered at the Technical School, New Plymouth on 18 September 1907. He stated that: ‘Everyone should make up his or her mind to work with all his or her might – work – whilst they worked, play whilst they played.’ Malone then stated that the ‘world was made up of conquerors and conquered.’ He went on to claim that in New Zealand ‘there were no very rich people and few poor people, and the really poor were very often poor from their own faults – habits of intemperance or indolence.’ Malone was critical of those who lacked a commitment to hard work, stating that: ‘Men who were not honest workmen, who kept an eye on the clock and did as little as possible, were fools, and would soon have no work to do. In time the men who put work first would find plenty of work and plenty of pay.’ Although Malone took a very hard-nosed attitude towards the poor, essentially blaming them for their own condition, he was prepared to admit that many manual workers were underpaid. They should, he considered, receive a wage that would enable them to keep themselves, a wife and family in reasonable comfort and enjoy some recreation. In this lecture Malone expounded his commitment to the widely held Victorian ideals of self-help and self-improvement through hard work and education – habits that had helped make Malone a wealthy and successful member of the Taranaki community.47 Malone’s father had also held these beliefs, writing that ‘incessant practice and step-by-step is the way but beware of decline after rising to height ... A review of progress in all departments is needed monthly or quarterly or yearly’.48
Ida Malone with her family. From right: stepdaughter Norah, stepson Maurice (in the boater), and Barney and Denis in front, Mollie on her mother’s lap (the older girl, left, is a visiting family friend).
NZ Freelance Coll, Alexander Turnbull Library
Questions related to land tenure were the subject of great debate in New Zealand during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.49 Malone saw the extension of the freehold system of land tenure as being absolutely central to the future health and development of New Zealand. He strongly promoted these ideas to the royal commission on land tenure in 1905 and when he stood as an independent liberal in a by-election held in the Taranaki House of Representatives electorate in May 1907. Malone described himself as a ‘Liberal of long standin
g of democratic tendencies who does most of his own thinking’.50 His views on the extension of freehold title, and support for leaseholders being able to buy their land at its original valuation, mirrored those of the conservative candidate. During the campaign’s many public meetings Malone demonstrated a quick wit. In a closely contested election, Malone split the Liberal vote, thereby ensuring the success of the conservative candidate.51
The following year, the Liberal leader Sir Joseph Ward, it seems, offered to make Malone his party’s official candidate in the Taranaki electorate in that year’s general election. Malone would not accept unless he was allowed to follow his conscience on the freehold issue, something Ward could not agree to. He again campaigned vigorously as an independent liberal, stressing ‘the ‘supremity’ of New Zealand; of the New Zealander; of Taranaki; and of the Taranaki man, a platform ‘calculated to appeal vaguely to patriotism and to parochialism.’52 He cut a handsome and eloquent figure during the election campaign and was allegedly a particular favourite of female voters. In the election held on 17 November 1908 the sitting conservative, opposition member Henry Okey, obtained 2826 votes, Malone 1546 and the official Liberal candidate, Bellringer, 849. The strong backing received by Malone reflected support for his independent status, his policies, which appear to have been generally popular, and the fact that the official Liberal candidate was, in some respects, weak.53 That Malone was a staunch Roman Catholic probably counted against him in the political arena during a period when relations between Catholics and non-Catholics were marked by a degree of suspicion and tension.54 Malone and his family were active in the Stratford Catholic church and the four eldest boys, Edmond, Brian, Terry and Maurice, all attended St Patrick’s College, Wellington and Norah the Sacred Heart Convent in Island Bay, Wellington.55
A studio portrait of William and Ida Malone taken by the well-known Taranaki photographer James McAllister. Malone took this print overseas with him in 1914, but tore it in half to excise himself from it.
Malone Family Collection Wellington (now in ATL)
During this period Malone continued to serve as a Volunteer officer, and in May 1910 he was made an acting lieutenant-colonel and appointed commanding officer of the 4th Battalion Wellington (Taranaki) Rifle Volunteers.56 At this time Malone seems to have reduced his involvement in legal work. He sold his share of his practice and returned to Stratford where he started a smaller firm, Malone and King. He then devoted more time to his other interests.57 Malone’s appointment took place at a time when the New Zealand armed forces were being radically restructured. Compulsory military training was introduced to provide manpower for a new Territorial Force, which could both defend New Zealand and provide an expeditionary force for service overseas in a major conflict.58 Malone had for several years been a firm supporter of compulsory military training. He was also convinced that the British Empire was under threat, and was likely to be engaged in a major war within a few years. These views and his longstanding interest in military matters led him to devote much of his time to his military duties in what were to be the last years of his life.59
A British Army Officer, Major-General Alexander Godley, was appointed by the New Zealand government to command the local forces and implement the new defence arrangements. Godley was from an Anglo-Irish family and later wrote of his first meeting with Malone that ‘the fact that we were fellow countrymen at once established a bond of sympathy and I was much impressed by his attractive personality and obvious keenness.’ Godley’s confidence in Malone meant that he was quickly confirmed in the rank of lieutenant-colonel and given command of one of the new Territorial Force battalions, the 11th Regiment (Taranaki Rifles).60
Malone at a Volunteer Force training camp. He is wearing an early model of a lemon squeezer hat.
Alexander Turnbull Library
Malone read widely on military subjects, including military history, leadership, tactics and strategy. He annotated many of his books on the subject and wrote, at least, one very detailed notebook setting out key points from books and articles he had read.61 It is clear that he thought carefully about the knowledge, qualities and habits required to lead men successfully in battle. The breadth and depth of Malone’s study of military matters is clearly evident in the scope and content of a series of six lectures he gave on military topics in New Plymouth in mid-1910. The subjects covered in the lectures included, ‘Mobilisation. Intercommunication and Orders’, ‘Billets, Camps and Bivouacs: Protection at Rest’, ‘Marches: Protection on the Move’, ‘The Battle. Attack’ and ‘The Battle. The Defence’.62 The lectures encapsulated many of the principles and practices that guided Malone’s conduct as a military officer in peacetime and in war. In his synopsis of the introduction to the lecture series, for instance, Malone wrote: ‘War, dire necessity for, peace and vice. War and virtue.’ He then went on to stress that the education of military officers ‘must be more thorough than that of a Lawyer or Doctor’ and that officers had a duty ‘to acquire and perfect knowledge.’ In his discussion of how a military commander should develop and set out his operational plans, Malone stressed the need to keep the object of an operation clearly in focus and the need for plans to be based on a sound appreciation of the position ‘and not [an] appreciation made to fit [a] plan.’ He also emphasised the need for military plans to be practical, with all relevant details worked out and to be set out in a logical manner.63
The commanding officers of Territorial Force units, especially initially, faced many difficulties. There was a significant level of popular opposition to compulsory training. Many men objected to compulsory training simply because of the way it disrupted their lives. A significant proportion of employers were also opposed to the new military training scheme, because it led to employees being called away for training at inconvenient times. In backcountry areas, including much of Taranaki, roads were practically impassable after dark, making it very difficult for many men to attend drills.64
Malone at a training camp, probably in 1910 or 1911.
Puke Ariki
From the outset Malone’s Regiment was one of the most effective units in the Territorial Force.65 In his report for the 1913–14 year, the district commander Colonel [later Major-General] Sir Edward Chaytor wrote that the Taranaki Rifles was in ‘a very satisfactory condition’ and that Malone was ‘very capable and is ably backed up by a number of excellent company commanders’. Chaytor went on to comment that the battalion’s work in the field was ‘good’, but that discipline needed to be improved; something he thought would happen as officers gained more experience.66 The commander of the Wellington Infantry Brigade, Colonel R.W. Tate, thought that Malone was hard-working but headstrong, and that he took great care to look after the men under his command.67
Malone was proud that his regiment was designated the Taranaki Rifles, and followed the British Rifle Brigade’s practices in style of drill and other matters. He achieved something of a coup when the Governor, the Earl of Liverpool, a former Rifle Brigade officer, agreed to be the new regiment’s honorary colonel.68 Originally, like other infantry regiments in the new force, Malone’s regiment wore felt, slouch hats with the left side of the brim turned up. The Wellington Infantry Brigade’s 1911 annual camp at Takapau was marked by several days of heavy rain. Water collected in the dents in the top of the slouch heads and in response Malone decided that the men of his regiment should lower the left side of the brim and pinch the crown into a point, thereby converting them into ‘lemon squeezer’ hats that mirrored the shape of Mount Taranaki, a facsimile of which formed the central element in the 11th Regiment’s badge.69
The 11th (Taranaki Rifles) Regiment in 1913, formed up with its commanding officer mounted in the foreground. Many of these men willingly followed him to war.
Malone Family Collection Wellington (now in ATL)
Incidents at Territorial Force camps before the First World War provide a useful insight into Malone’s style of command. At the Wellington District camp at Oringi near Dannevir
ke in April 1913, several men from B Company 11th Regiment, decided to mete out some unofficial punishment to one of their comrades whom they considered had shown disloyalty to the regiment by writing, in his civilian capacity as a reporter for a New Plymouth newspaper, a less than complimentary article about some aspects of the camp. When they discovered that other members of the regiment were intent on joining in the affair they defended their comrade and prevented any assault from taking place. Officers and NCOs of the Taranaki Rifles moved quickly to end to the disturbance. Later Malone was informed that Godley considered that his regiment had shown a lack of discipline and, in particular, that its NCOs had failed in their duty to keep a close eye on their men. Malone considered this criticism to be unwarranted, and in a well-argued response stressed the practical difficulties Territorial Force NCOs and officers faced when it came to disciplining their men. Throughout the affair Malone exhibited good sense and a desire to act reasonably and fairly.70 A year later a fairly serious disturbance developed at the divisional camp at Takapau. The disturbance mainly involved men from the 7th (Wellington West Coast) Regiment, although men from Malone’s regiment were also involved. Through his calm and sensible approach, Malone played a significant role in defusing the situation.71