The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-07-11 00:00:00

NEW ZEALAND.

THE MIIRDER Or A MISSIONART.—We have had to
wait for a long while I'r the details of the murder of
the Rev. Carl Sylirus Volkner, the missionary in New
Zealand, of which intimation cam, by the telegraph
two or three months-ago. They are given with horrible
minuteness in the latest letters from New Zealand. Mr.
Volkner was a really good and pious man, who bad
laboured for the natives with heart and hand for m
t air

years, and who, it was supposed, kid secured tha...
fullest confidence ard esteem. He not only attended to
their spiritual wants, but he alleviated their distresses
during the raging of a recent epidemic which carried
off many of the tribe. He established, with the assistance
of Mrs. Volkner, • school for their children, and, in
fact, he acted towards them all as a kind father would
have done to his own offspring. Another clergyman of
the Church of England, the Rev. Mr. Grace, was also
taken prisoner by these natives, and, but for the for-
tunate circumstance of his having been subsequently
rescued by Captain Levy the master of the trading
schooner Eclipse, he would most undoubtedly have
shared • like fate to poor Volkner. Captain Levy has
since published • narrative of the sad event, from which
the following is eitracted:—"About 800 natives had now
assembled, and Mr. Volkner was marched under the
tree. The natives took off hie coat, vest, and shirt.
which the principal chief put on, being quite pleased
with the watch and chain. This chief was Kereope, of
Meketn, who was travelling with the Taranakis, and a
main cause of all the evil. Poor Volkner had only his
flannel and trousers left to cover his nakedness. He
manifested the greatest calmness throughout, and shook
hands with many of the natives whilet they were tying
his handkerchief over his eyes and hauling him up to
the fatal branch. The natives marvelled greatly at the
team running from Mr. Vollcner's eyes. They did not
pinion either anus or legs, but left him to dangle for
nearly an hour in the air, whilst corns of the natives
were hauling at his legs to get off his boots and trousers,
sharing what was in his pockets whilst he hung over
them. One of the natives also put on the trousers in
the dying man's presence. After letting the body hang
about half an hour, it was lowered and taken to the
chuich, near which they fenced i.e a place, spread the
body out in the form of a cross, and proceeded to cut off
he head, the body being still warm, and symptoms of
life being yet apparent. The inhuman fellows next
carefully cut the fle,h round the chest and back, and
chopped off the neck with an old axe. The natives then
formed themselves into a line, and prepared to taste the
blood as it ran out of the head and body. Amongst the
woolen there was a fearful scramble as to who should
have the most. What blood dropped on the ground
they painted their faces with. The chief Kerenpe took
out the eyes with his fingers, and ate them before the
crowd, in order to show them an example. The flesh of
the neck was then stripped off and given to the dogs, a
large number of whom *ere around the place. A fight
arose amongst the dogs, and the natives threw the body
to them. After it had been gnawed some time by the
dogs, the natives took it up and threw it dnwn • water.
closet close at hand." Were the event above described,
sad as it is, a solitary one, we might fain to believe that,
by destroying the actors of it, we should at the same
time get rid of the evil; but such would not be the
case: for Pal Merireism pervades nearly all the tribes.
The troops seem to be little or no protection; and the
settlers are weary of the present system of warfare,
which they think only encourage* the natives to believe
in our weakness. To sum up the whole of the evidence
now before us, and give a correct verdict relative
to the relationship of the Maori population with the
European settlers' it is this—that the war for the es-
tablishment of the Qiieen's authority amongst them
will 10,W have to he begun in earnest; and that what
we have hitherto done has been nothing bat child's play
to what we mast resort to if we wish to see her Majesty's
authority in this colony fully and firmly established.