[1] Born in the Electorate of Hesse, Völkner's mission took him to the lands of Te Whakatōhea at the behest of their chieftain, Mokomoko, initially an ally, who patronised him.

[2] In response to Völkner's death, George Grey authorised a military expedition to Ōpōtiki to arrest those who had convicted and executed him.

[5] The Battle of Te Ranga, on 21 June 1864, was the last major conflict of the Tauranga Campaign and is said to mark the effective end of the fighting involved with the Invasion of the Waikato.

The Pai Marire (or Hauhau) movement, a syncretic religious group, was gaining ground and converts among the East Coast Māori.

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.

On 2 March Protestant missionary Carl Völkner discovered that his Māori congregation had moved on from Christianity to Pai Mārire (or Hauhau).

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.

He proclaimed its perpetrators “fanatics” and in September 1965 declared martial law in the Bay of Plenty, ordering Ōpōtiki locals to assist government forces or face land confiscation.

[5][2] Then forces then available to the New Zealand government, some 500 men, were transported by HMS Eclipse from Wanganui through Cook Strait, around the East Cape to Ōpōtiki.

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.

Once Grey's men had made successful landfall at Ōpōtiki, they opened fire indiscriminately at the local inhabitants, forcing them to retreat into nearby forest.

Mokomoko, unaware he was the prime suspect behind the orchestration of Völkner’s death, surrendered in Ōpōtiki on condition that no punishment be inflicted upon Te Whakatōhea.

Shielded from the harsh light With narrow eyes I reflect on the retribution taken at Hamukete Remember how I was taken on board ship (chained) The memory of it burns me with shame.

[9] In 1993, Justice Minister Doug Graham delivered an apology to Te Whakatōhea along with an official pardon of Mokomoko, one of the chiefs hanged.

[10] 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.