I wrote and illustrated Country Churches of New Zealand. It was published in 2002 by New Holland, Publishers and is still on sale in bookshops. The publishers have kindly agreed to me re-publishing some of the book’s images and descriptions in this blog.
HIONA/ST.STEPHEN THE MARTYR, OPOTIKI
The church of St. Stephen the Martyr is notorious as the location for the murder and decapitation of Reverend Carl Sylvius Volkner (responsible for its completion in 1864).
Volkner, believed by many Maori to be a government spy, offended not only many of the local Whakatohea tribe but also Kereopa, leader of a faction of out-of-town Hau Hau militants, to such extent that he was lynched.
In 1866 a local chief, Mokomoko, was hanged with others for the murder but was pardoned in 1992 in the first of a number of reconciliatory gestures by the government toward the tribe in the wake of which the church and its grounds have been refreshed and the name of the church changed to its original – Hiona, the Maori rendering of Zion.
© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
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