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| Cattle in Mathesons' beach paddock,
northern end of Ōtūmoetai Road, Spring 1917 Courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. Photo 03-160 |
On a stormy December night in 1918, a live electrical wire ended the life of an unsuspecting cow grazing in a field on the Matheson farm in Otūmoetai. The ensuing brouhaha was labelled a ‘farce’ by the editor of the Bay of Plenty Times and, not for the first time, drew the public’s attention to the discord within the Tauranga Borough Council.
Group photograph taken at McLaren
Falls, 1924
Lloyd Mandeno is in the front and five in from the right (leaning against a
rock with his hat on his knee)
Courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. Photo 99-911
The drama unfolded when Lloyd Mandeno, the engineer managing the town’s innovative and increasingly successful venture into all things electrical, summitted his report on the cow’s demise. In Mandeno’s opinion the owner’s demand of £15 compensation was exorbitant. He also asserted that the claim had been encouraged by ‘a Borough Councillor ... with a view to the embarrassment of Council’s officers’[i]. This was a serious accusation and Mandeno was pressed to name the Councillor. He pointed to the seasoned local politician, Benjamin Conrad Robbins.
In his defence Cr. Robbins had this to say:
‘I simply want to give it a flat denial, and I think Mr Mandeno has exceeded his position as Engineer to have put it in his report without having consulted me. What took place was simply this. The day after the cow was killed Mr Sharp was telling it to a number of people. I came along and they told it to me. He (Mr Sharp) said “of course the Council will have to pay” and I said, “I presume a claim will be made and then it will be for the Council to say whether it will pay or not.”’[ii]
Councillor B.C. Robbins
Civic Collection, Tauranga City Council
Cr. Robbins then went on the attack, asserting that the wire, which was hung from a tree, could have killed a man and that the incident was a case of ‘extreme carelessness’ by the electrical team. ‘If we have men in our employ who will carry out their work in such a manner, it is time we had other men to take their place.’[iii] The outcome of the exchange was an inquiry to ascertain if blame could be attached to the Council’s Electricity Department.
The following conclusions were reached and shared with Council in January 1919 [iv]:
1. The cow was dead and that it died from shock. (This was briefly debated!)
2. Based on the admission that there had been an error in judgement around construction of the wire, Council would pay compensation. (Mr Paterson had agreed to reduce his claim to £10)
3. That the statement in the report referring to the actions of Cr. Robbins would be deleted.
This might have been the end of it had these recommendations been adopted without further discussion. However, so important to the town was the developing electrical industry - and Mandeno’s role in it - Cr. Macmillan put forward an amendment. He contended it should go on record that Mandeno and his staff were in no way to blame for the cow’s death and that it was a ‘pure accident’. Cr. Robbins responded that this was a ‘whitewashing’ which would erode the public’s confidence in the Council. A further round of accusations ensued, and a minority report was narrowly adopted. It included the statement that ‘It was demonstrated that the councillor referred to had made considerable inquiry re the accident to the cow but had not asked the Electrical Engineer one question about it because for the last few months he had not treated him with common civility’. Clearly, in the matter of the electrocuted cow there were no winners or losers, except of course for the cow.
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