Völkner incident: Difference between revisions

Among the Māori community, Völkner was rumoured to be a government spy. It was thought he sent Governor George Grey a plan of a pa near Te Awamutu where British troops burned women and children alive in a whare that had been converted to a church. The wife and two daughters of Kereopa were among the victims. Pai Mārire (or Hauhau) arrived in the [[Ōpōtiki]] area of the [[Bay of Plenty]] in February 1865. On 2 March Protestant missionary Carl Völkner discovered that his Māori congregation had moved on from [[Christianity]] to Pai Mārire (or Hauhau). Like many Europeans in isolated communities, Völkner had sent reports of anti-Government activity to the governor. Although warned to stay away from the town, on his next visit he was captured, put on trial and hanged from a tree, and his body was decapitated an hour later. [[Kereopa Te Rau]], a Hauhau, was alleged to have re-entered the church and conducted a service with Völkner's head in the pulpit beside him. He was also alleged to have plucked out the dead missionary's eyes and swallowed them.<ref name="Sept1865">{{cite web |title= The Church Missionary Gleaner, September 1865|work= Death of the Rev. C. S Volkner|accessdate=24 October 2015 |url= http://www.churchmissionarysociety.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Images/CMS_OX_Gleaner_1865_09/2| publisher = [[Adam Matthew Digital]] |url-access=subscription }}</ref> One eye allegedly represented Parliament and the other the Queen and British law. News of the murder caused great alarm and anger among [[Pākehā]].