[1] In September 1910 the presbytery held a public hearing asking Chapple to explain his conduct in relation to a number of matters, including chairing at a lecture by English rationalist Joseph McCabe, by subscribing to the London Rationalist Association and by preaching at the Unitarian Church in Auckland.

[3] In December of that year, the church managers wrote to the Timaru Herald with a testimonial on behalf of Mr Chapple, praising his qualities as a clergyman, and saying he had endeared himself to many for his outspokenness and by refusing to be silenced.

When Unitarian minister William Jellie visited in July 1911 he found "a thoroughly live movement, an increasing congregation, a Sunday School with 50 on its roll, and a Discussion Society that meets during the week".

[7] In June 1915, he was forced by local opposition, and the intervention of then Prime Minister Bill Massey and the police, to cancel an intended anti-war sermon on "New Zealand as a Peace-Loving Republic".

[9] In July 1915 Chapple moved to California with his wife and thirteen of his fourteen surviving children, in the expectation that the United States would remain neutral.

[1] In October of that year he wrote to the Maoriland Worker saying that the family would not return to New Zealand until "democracy crushes militarism".

[12] When it became clear that the United States would enter the war the family returned to New Zealand and settled in Christchurch, where Chapple founded a Unitarian church.

[13] Following Chapple's continued preaching against the war, in 1917 the police charged him with two counts of seditious utterance at Greymouth.

A woman goes down the valley of death to bring a child into the world, she nurses it, sends it to school, sees it through the sixth standard, then comes the call to arms, and it goes away to war; what for?

[8] His family were supported by socialist friends and sympathisers during his imprisonment, including Fred Cooke, Ada Wells, Tim Armstrong and Ted Howard.

The two sequels Meg (1981) and Sole Survivor (1983) follow the lives of Plumb's daughter (based on Gee's mother) and grandchildren.