Völkner Incident

The Völkner Incident describes the murder of the missionary Carl Sylvius Völkner in New Zealand in 1865 and the consequent reaction of the Government of New Zealand in the midst of the New Zealand wars.

Background
The Battle of Te Ranga, June 21, 1864, was the last major conflict of the Tauranga Campaign and is also said to mark the effective end of the fighting involved with the Invasion of the Waikato. It left an uneasy peace—not so much a peace as an absence of conflict, one that lasted for several months. This period saw two significant changes in disposition of the warring parties.

The Imperial Troops were fighting their last campaign in New Zealand before being withdrawn to garrison duty and then complete withdrawn from New Zealand. At the same time the Colonial Militia were being reorganized and rearmed to take up the slack.

Meanwhile the Pai Marire movement (or Hau Hau) was gaining ground and converts among the East Coast Māori. The Pai Marire Movement began in 1862 as a combination of Christianity and traditional Māori beliefs. Originally peaceful, it had soon changed to become a violent and vicious anti-Pākehā creed.

Völkner's murder
Pai Marire evangelists arrived in the Opotiki area of the Bay of Plenty in February 1865. On 2 March the missionary, Carl Völkner, discovered that his Māori congregation had moved on from Christianity to Hau Hauism. 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. The Hau Hau prophet, Kereopa Te Rau, re-entered the church and conducted a service with Völkner's head in the pulpit beside him. He plucked out the dead missionary's eyeballs and swallowed them. He said one eye was Parliament and the other the Queen and British law. The news of the murder and canabalism caused great alarm and anger among Pākehā.

We know now that Hau hau leader Te Rau had talks with the war like Rewi Maniapoto in the King Country. Rewi Maniapoto had led the uprising against the government in Auckland and the Waikato in 1863. After his defeat Rewi was known to seek out new war leaders, such as Te Rau and Te Kooti, who might restart the rebellion against the government.

Völkner sent  reports of anti-Government activity to the governor as did most prominent people in isolated communities. It is unclear how Hau hau would have become aware of this or even if this was a motive, as hau hau had previously killed other settlers. The information may have been provided by Catholic missionary Father Euloge Reignier who had a history of direct competition with the Protestant missionaries on the East Coast. Father Reignier had previously baptized the Maori radical. After the murder he was quickly sent to Australia by the Catholic church. The conflict in Taranaki (on the opposite side of the Island)  had to be resolved before anything could be resolved in the East Coast  region to defeat the Hau hau rebels and their supporters. As the British had begun withdrawing their troops, the government was faced with the huge cost of funding the New Zealand army, so costs were cut and numbers were very small. In Taranaki, the Forest Rangers, who formed the core of the small army, went on strike when their pay was cut.

Response
For several months nothing happened—then came the capture of Wereroa Pa—the relief of the siege of Pipiriki in August, 1865 that virtually ended that phase of the Second Taranaki War. This freed up the militia for action elsewhere.

In September, 1865, the forces then available to the New Zealand government, some 500 men, were transported by ship from Wanganui through Cook Strait, around the East Cape to Opotiki. The composition of this force was significant. There were four companies of militia, a troop of cavalry and a contingent of Ngāti Hau (not to be confused with their enemy, the Hau Hau) warriors led by Kepa te Rangihiwinui. These were the units that had already been campaigning together during the Taranaki War and had a history of successful cooperation and mutual respect.

The landing at Opotiki was accomplished with difficulty. One of the ships ran aground on a falling tide and came under fire from the shore. Eventually it had to be abandoned and the crew and militia waded ashore but it was another twenty-four hours before the other ships were able to land their men and supplies.

As soon as they were established and the snipers driven away the militia occupied the church where Völkner had been murdered. While some of the Pākehā soldiers worked at turning this into a fortress the others with Kepa and the Ngāti Hau were turned loose on the countryside. They employed the military tactic of denying the enemy food supplies, keeping what they needed and destroying the rest. Beyond a few muskets the East Coast Hau hau lacked many modern weapons with which to defend themselves. This accounts for the numerous one sided battles and the Hau hau resorting to attempted treachery to defeat the government forces. It was made clear to them that these depredations would continue until the men responsible for the murder of Völkner were captured or surrendered. But the man they wanted most, Kereopa, had retreated to Tuhoe lands in the Urewera Mountains and had no intention of surrendering.

Aftermath
By the end of October the local tribe's position was desperate. Some twenty of its chiefs surrendered and were shipped to Auckland for trial. Five of them received the death penalty and were hanged the following year. Large areas of land around Opotiki were confiscated under the New Zealand Settlements Act of 1863 and sold to settlers.

In the early 1870s, the Ureweras were invaded by the government forces searching for Te Kooti and the Tuhoe were effectively conquered and subdued. They were forced to yield Kereopa to Ropata Waha Waha, and he was tried and hanged for Völkner's murder on 5 January 1872.

In 1993, Justice Minister Doug Graham delivered an apology to Te Whakatōhea along with an official pardon of Mokomoko, one of the chiefs hanged. In 1996, the New Zealand Government signed a Deed of Settlement, acknowledging and apologising for the wrongful invasion and confiscation of Te Whakatōhea lands, and the subsequent economic, cultural and developmental devastation suffered by the iwi. In 1998 the New Zealand government offered the Whakatōhea iwi NZ$40 million as compensation for all their historical claims including the invasion and the confiscation of land following the Völkner Incident; however the offer was not accepted. Te Whakatōhea are presently preparing to negotiate a full settlement with the New Zealand Government. As part of the settlement of neighbouring iwi Ngāti Awa's claims in 2003, the Völkner Rocks near Whakaari/White Island were renamed "Te Paepae Aotea (Völkner Rocks)".