3-017-122 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The murder of a missionary by the Maoris in New Zealand: savage dance of the Pai Marire Fanatics, 1865. 'The war of races which has been going on for two or three years past in several provinces of the northern island...does not seem likely to arrive at a speedy termination...While General Cameron has failed to make any sure progress in the campaign which was to have cleared the country between Wellington and Taranaki, other districts, especially in the neighbourhood of Auckland, have been disturbed by the revolt of a large number of the Maori population, who seem to have relapsed into worse than their original savagery...The hideous superstition now prevailing, which takes the name of the "Pai Marire" from the Virgin Mary, of whom they have heard from a French Catholic missionary lately amongst them, is held to sanctify the commission of any crime or offence...Prompted by this deadly fanaticism, the natives have committed a horrible crime at Opotiki...The victim was a missionary clergyman, the Rev. Carl Sylvius Volkner, a native of Cassel, Germany...the Maoris had all taken an oath the day before to kill every minister or soldier who came there...There were now about 800 natives on the ground, who at once marched him under the tree...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.