German Protestant missionary
Carl Sylvius Volkner
(
German pronunciation:
[fœlkn?]
;
c.
1819
? 2 March 1865) was a German-born
Protestant
missionary active in the
North Island
of New Zealand during the mid-nineteenth century. He is famous for being tried and executed for espionage by members of the
Pai M?rire
faith at his church in
?p?tiki
, in the
Bay of Plenty
. This later became known as the
Volkner incident
, an important event in the
New Zealand Wars
.
Biography
[
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]
Volkner was born in the town of
Kassel
, in the
Electorate of Hesse
, Germany, around 1819. He trained at the missionary college at
Hamburg
. He was then sent to New Zealand by the
North German Missionary Society
, along with several other missionaries. He arrived in the country in August 1849 and was sent to Taranaki, to work alongside another German missionary, Johann Riemenschneider.
[1]
In 1852 Volkner offered his services to the
Church Missionary Society
(CMS).
[1]
He married Emma Lanfear, sister of a CMS missionary on 29 June 1854.
[2]
For several years he worked as a lay teacher in the lower Waikato and in 1857 became a naturalised citizen. Volkner was ordained a deacon in 1860 and the following year, in August, he became a priest and took charge of the CMS mission station at
?p?tiki
. The local
iwi
(tribe) was
Te Whakat?hea
and soon a church and school were built in the area.
[1]
Emma Volkner, his wife
Death
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]
On 19 May 1864 Volkner recorded that four of the 16 Christian teachers of the ?p?tiki district had accompanied a
Pai M?rire
(Hauhau) campaign to
Maketu
, although not as active participants in the fighting.
[3]
He went to
Auckland
during 1864 and again in January 1865. He was then warned by members of Te Whakat?hea not to return to ?p?tiki.
[1]
Ignoring the warning, Volkner returned to ?p?tiki on 1 March 1865 and was apprehended by the Pai M?rire led by Patara, a chief, and
Kereopa Te Rau
, a Pai M?rire prophet.
[1]
[4]
Volkner was hanged the following day from a willow tree near the church by his own Whakat?hea congregation.
[1]
[5]
He was taken down and decapitated, and his eyes were gouged out and swallowed by
Kereopa Te Rau
. Kereopa apparently proclaimed that the left eye represented Parliament, and the right represented British authority as he did so, to ingest the
mana
of both.
[6]
The Revd
Thomas Grace
, who was also in ?p?tiki, was also taken by the Pai M?rire, although he was rescued.
[4]
George Grey
was enraged upon hearing of the execution. He proclaimed its perpetrators “fanatics” and in September 1965 declared martial law in the Bay of Plenty, ordering ?p?tiki locals to assist government forces or face land confiscation.
[6]
[7]
Once Grey's men had made successful landfall at ?p?tiki, they opened fire indiscriminately at the local inhabitants, forcing them to retreat into nearby forest. Rather than pursue them, the Crown troops looted the p?, before burning it to the ground. Mokomoko, unaware he was the prime suspect behind the orchestration of Volkner’s death, surrendered in ?p?tiki on condition that no punishment be inflicted upon Te Whakat?hea. Instead, he and four other men were arrested for murder and tried in Auckland. The rope used to hang Volkner was deemed sufficient evidence for the five men to be sentenced to death. Mokomoko and the other men were executed in Mount Eden Prison on 17 May 1866. His remains were repatriated to Whakat?hea in 1988, after 7 years’ worth of Waitangi Tribunal hearings; he was posthumously given an unconditional pardon in 1992.
Kereopa Te Rau
, who ate Volkner’s eyes, fled into
T?hoe country
after Grey sent troops to the Bay of Plenty. He lived in secret in the hamlet of Ruatahuna for five years. After the fall of the T?hoe state in 1871, he was captured by
k?papa
Ropata Wahawaha
while he was searching for
Te Koori
in
the Ureweras
. Kereopa was tried for Volkner's murder in Napier on 21 December, and the jury decided his fate the same day. He was executed on 5 January 1872, despite appeals for clemency. Kereopa was pardoned unconditionally in November 2014.
[8]
Legacy
[
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]
Volkner's gravestone now stands embedded in the ?p?tiki church wall
The
Anglican
church in ?p?tiki was reconsecrated as St Stephen the Martyr in memory of his death on 21 November 1875. His bible, chalice and paten are still held at the church. After pardon was later granted to those involved in Volkner’s death, the church was renamed again as Hiona St Stephen’s on 5 June 1994
[9]
Te Paepae o Aotea
, also known the Volkner Rocks, are named after him.
[
citation needed
]
See also
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References
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]
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