HARAPIPI SHOOTING AFFAIR.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 269, 2 April 1898, Page 3

HARAPIPI SHOOTING AFFAIR.

TO TUB EDITOR. Sir, —I think it but right that the public should know a little of both sides of the trouble, all your correspondents seem to keep to one side in the matter. We all know what a serious thing it is to take a man's life. Pohlen, it must be remembered, is a man of about 80 years of age, at that age a man should be respected and not hunted with spades or insulted, or told to go to h—l, as the deceased and others had been in the habit of doing, and for no other reason than because he (Pohlen) wished to go to his land by the public road, which gives access to his orchard. 1 hese are Corcoran's own words which he used to Pohlen's son when he was fencing in the road, " Tell your father not to come along this road any more or you shall bargain for what is going to happen to him."' On another occasion he said, referring to the road, " This is my private property, and if you come on it again I will smash your head for you." Your correspondents have nothing to Bay about this. As the constant dropping wears the rock, so also doth constant injustice wear the mind. Your correspondect, " Waikato Settler," in his remarks about more men of Pohlen'3 temper, is correct. There is at least one in Harapipi now who is noted for it, and who may yet make another show. "With regard to committees to uphold the law, I must say we are sadly in want of something of that kind. We have already in Harapipi a party which downholds the law. The place is in a Btate of lawlessness, and has been for several years. The strong make rules and the weak must obey or a fight is the consequence ; pests and firewood have been wilfully burnt. Where is the law that should protect us ? What of the party who by an act of justice could have put a stop to the whole trouble by keeping the roads from being used as private property. Where anarchy exists, no good can be expected, and as long as it is allowed to exist in Harapipi, no good dcws will be heard from the place. If the public only knew the truth of the trouble, they would certainly be sorry for the man who is 80 years of age, but the truth has been kept from them, they been blinded with deliberate The friends of the deceased know that he, by his unjust doings, made the trouble which led to such an unfortunate end. There are certaiu parties who are only too eager to grab and make use of every yarn they hear about Pohleu, while they themselves overlook and hide their own disgraceful wrongs. Fiist cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye.—-1 am, etc, Common Justice. Harapipi.