This single-storey Oamaru stone building, a smaller version of neighbouring Exchange Chambers (Register No. 2276), was probably built in the late 1870s or early 1880s. It was the office of Oamaru’s Evening Mail until 1884 and the National Mortgage and Agency Company (NMA) took over the building in 1889. The former NMA Building is a significant element in the nationally renowned Harbour/Tyne Street Historic Area (Register No. 7064). In 1876, a group of local businessmen, including the merchant George Sumpter, started the Evening Mail. A photograph shows the paper’s premises – a single storey building with two windows and a central door punctuated by pilasters, with another door to the left. The Evening Mail’s premises are very similar in form to Sumpter’s Exchange Chambers, suggesting Thomas Forrester also designed them. The Oamaru Borough Council’s rate books record offices and a printery for George Jones on this section from 1881 to 1885. The Evening Mail was not initially a great success. George Jones (1844-1920), an experienced printer and publisher, rescued the paper. He published his first issue on 12 May 1877. Jones, born in the Hutt Valley and educated in Geelong, was involved in the printing business from the age of fourteen. After returning to New Zealand in 1863, he founded the Waikato Times, the Echo in Auckland and the Evening News in Dunedin before buying the Evening Mail in 1877. Jones changed the Evening Mail’s fortune, although in an unexpected way. Reporting on land speculation, Jones implied that the Attorney General had a conflict of interest. Summoned to the House, Jones was recalcitrant. The House ordered a criminal libel prosecution – Jones was tried and acquitted. This was the first State trial by order of Parliament and vindicated the right of the press to comment on matters of public interest. The Evening Mail became notorious and prospered. In March 1879, Jones renamed the paper the Oamaru Mail. The newspaper shared the building with the North Otago Permanent Building Society – they had offices, a store and bond at 11 Tyne Street from 1882. Needing more space, Jones built new premises on the opposite side of Tyne Street in 1884 (Register No. 3365). The NMA took over the building in 1889. The North Otago Times reported that the NMA had secured temporary offices in Tyne Street, ‘those recently occupied by Mr W.J.A. Sanderson, next Exchange buildings.’ The ‘National Mortgage and Agency Co. of New Zealand Limited’ and ‘1889’ are picked out in relief on the pediment. The NMA grew out of Dunedin’s gold rush wealth, exporting wool and providing finance to farmers. They leased the property until 1937. The association with farming continued in the twentieth century. It was home to stock and station agents Dalgety and Co. Ltd, and then Darling McDowell Ltd. Since 1995, the building has been home to Slightly Foxed Secondhand Books.