Carl Sylvius Völkner
Carl Sylvius Völkner (c. 1819 – 2 March 1865) was a German-born Protestant missionary active in the North Island during the mid-nineteenth century. He is famous for being tried and executed for espionage by members of the Pai Mārire faith at his church in Ōpōtiki, in the Bay of Plenty. This later became known as the Völkner incident, an important event in the New Zealand Wars.
Carl Sylvius Völkner | |
|---|---|
 Carl Sylvius Völkner | |
| Born | c. 1819 |
| Died | 2 March 1865 (aged 45–46) |
| Cause of death | Hanging |
| Burial place | Hiona St Stephen's, Ōpōtiki 38.003683°S 177.284823°E |
| Spouse | Emma Völkner née Lanfear |
Born in the Electorate of Hesse, Völkner's mission took him to the lands of Te Whakatōhea at the behest of their chieftain, Mokomoko, initially an ally, who patronised him. With Whakatōhea support and guidance he established a church in Ōpōtiki in the Auckland Province (present-day Bay of Plenty). Völkner fell out with Te Whakatōhea after the Invasion of the Waikato, after which point many converted to the nascent Pai Mārire religion. Völkner was soon suspected of spying for the Crown by his former beneficiaries.
Despite hostilities Völkner had remained at Ōpōtiki, making several visits to Auckland in 1864, and again in January 1865. This further aroused suspicion that he was reporting to Governor George Grey on Whakatōhea activities without their approval. Ignoring warnings from several locals, he returned to Ōpōtiki on 1 March. Völkner was arrested almost immediately and tried on charges of espionage by Whakatōhea members of the Pai Mārire. Völkner was found guilty after a night of deliberation, and, sentenced to death, was hanged and decapitated at his church grounds.[1]
In response to Völkner's death, George Grey authorised a military expedition to Ōpōtiki to arrest those who had convicted and executed him. A number of local people were arrested and some were executed without trial. A large parcel of land, from Matatā to east of Ōpōtiki, was confiscated from eastern Bay of Plenty iwi. Despite being uninvolved in Völkner’s death, Mokomoko was arrested after Ōpōtiki Pā was looted and burnt to the ground by colonial forces. He surrendered to them on the condition that his tribe be left alone, but was wrongfully convicted for the crime, and executed among with several others in Auckland in May 1866.[2]
Biography
Völkner was born in the town of Kassel, in the Electorate of Hesse, Germany, around 1819. He was sent to New Zealand by the North German Missionary Society, along with several other missionaries, having received training at the missionary college at Hamburg. He arrived in the country in August 1849 and was sent to Taranaki, to work alongside another German missionary, Johann Riemenschneider.[3]
In 1852 Völkner offered his services to the Church Missionary Society (CMS).[3] He married Emma Lanfear, sister of a CMS missionary on 29 June 1854.[4] For several years he worked as a lay teacher in the lower Waikato and in 1857 became a naturalised citizen. Völkner 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 Ōpōtiki. The local iwi (tribe) was Te Whakatōhea and soon a church and school were built in the area.[3]
Death
On 19 May 1864 Völkner recorded that four of the 16 Christian teachers of the Ōpōtiki district had accompanied a Pai Mārire (Hauhau) campaign to Maketu, although not as active participants in the fighting.[5] He went to Auckland during 1864 and again in January 1865. He was then warned by members of Te Whakatōhea not to return to Ōpōtiki.[3]
Ignoring the warning, Völkner returned to Ōpōtiki on 1 March 1865 and was apprehended by the Pai Mārire led by Patara, a chief, and Kereopa Te Rau, a Pai Mārire prophet.[3][6] Völkner was hanged the following day from a willow tree near the church by his own Whakatōhea congregation.[3][7] 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.[8] The Revd Thomas Grace, who was also in Ōpōtiki, was also taken by the Pai Mārire, although he was rescued.[6]
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 Ōpōtiki locals to assist government forces or face land confiscation. [9][10] Once Grey's men had made successful landfall at Ōpōtiki, they opened fire indiscriminately at the local inhabitants, forcing them to retreat into nearby forest. Rather than pursue them, the Crown troops looted the pā, before burning it to the ground. Mokomoko, unaware he was the prime suspect behind the orchestration of Völkner’s death, surrendered in Ōpōtiki on condition that no punishment be inflicted upon Te Whakatōhea. Instead, he and four other men were arrested for murder and tried in Auckland. The rope used to hang Völkner 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 Whakatōhea in 1988, after 7 years’ worth of Waitangi Tribunal hearings; he was posthumously given an unconditional pardon in 1992.
Kereopa Te Rau, who ate Völkner’s eyes, fled into Tūhoe 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 Tūhoe state in 1871, he was captured by kūpapa 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.[11]
Legacy
The Anglican church in Ōpōtiki 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 Völkner’s death, the church was renamed again as Hiona St Stephen’s on 5 June 1994[12]
Te Paepae o Aotea, also known the Volkner Rocks, are named after him.
Footnotes
- https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1v5/volkner-carl-sylvius
- Pāho, Ten Canaries | Made with the support of Te Māngai (4 April 2023). "Episode 3: The Trial". RNZ. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
- Stokes, Evelyn (30 October 2012). "Völkner, Carl Sylvius". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
- "MARRIED". Daily Southern Cross. No. Volume XI, Issue 742. 8 August 1854. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
- "The Church Missionary Gleaner, February 1864". Christian Natives in New Zealand During the Time of War. Adam Matthew Digital. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
- "The Church Missionary Gleaner, September 1865". Death of the Rev. C. S Volkner. Adam Matthew Digital. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
- "Carl Volkner". New Zealand History Online. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 3 March 2014.
- Pāho, Ten Canaries | Made with the support of Te Māngai (4 April 2023). "Episode 3: The Trial". RNZ. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
- Pāho, Ten Canaries | Made with the support of Te Māngai (4 April 2023). "Episode 3: The Trial". RNZ. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
- https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1v5/volkner-carl-sylvius
- "Chief cleared of 1865 murder at last". NZ Herald. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
- "Hiona St Stephen Memorial, Ōpōtiki". New Zealand History. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
References
- Lyall, A. C., (1979) Whakatohea of Opotiki. A.H. & A.W. Reed.
- Chapter 5: The Völkner and Fulloon Slayings, in The Ngati Awa Raupatu Report. Waitangi Tribunal, 1999.