Days of future past

Today reality television shows and Hollywood movies are made on the theme of bad neighbours. One hundred and twenty years ago in the rural Waikato, neighbourhood tension ended in tragedy.

John Pohlen arrived in New Zealand in 1859. A German, during the Waikato wars he saw service with Von Tempsky in the Forest Rangers. Thereafter he settled and farmed in Harapipi.

In the late 1890s, public land adjacent to Pohlen’s property came up for tender. Pohlen and his son put in a bid, as did their neighbour, Patrick Corcoran. The Corcoran tender was accepted. Pohlen was furious. There was already bad blood between the families. By ploughing a section of his farm, Corcoran had denied Pohlen access to the main road. Though Pohlen had sought redress through formal channels he had been rebuffed.

On November 12, 1897, Corcoran and his son started repositioning a fence so that it corresponded to what they considered the correct boundary line between their farm and that of Pohlen.

At 11am Pohlen arrived on the scene, brandishing a gun, later described as ‘‘an old battered muzzle loader’’, presumably a relic from his Forest Ranger days.

He demanded that Corcoran cease work. Corcoran refused and attempted to wrestle the weapon away.

Pohlen pulled the trigger, shooting Corcoran just below the heart.

Corcoran fell back into his son’s arms, dying minutes later.

Newspaper speculation about Pohlen’s mental state was rife during reporting of the incident and subsequent hearings.

In his 79th year, with an imperfect grasp of English, he appeared confused at the initial arraignment, struggling to believe that he could be charged with murder.

At trial, it was accepted by both judge and jury that Pohlen was not guilty by virtue of insanity, though no evidence was presented to substantiate this claim.

Not everyone was happy that Pohlen escaped the hangman’s noose.

One correspondent of the Waikato Argus asked why, if he were indeed a ‘‘maniac’’, that he had not been placed in an asylum two decades earlier. Another called the insanity plea ‘‘an American dodge’’ and stated that Pohlen should have been lynched by his peers ahead of trial.