WOHLERS, JOHANN FRIEDRICH HEINRICH (1811-85) was the son of a farmer of Mahlenstorf, in the parish of Brucken, Hanover, which was at the time occupied by the French. After the French retired, the father was elected squire of the parish. At the age of six Johann went to live with a grandmother at Hoyerhagen. There he received his education, and grew to manhood 'among carts, plough, harrows, and corn wagons.' When he reached the later teens he still felt himself to be an uncultured youth who could not mix with those with whom he approached the doors of the missionary seminary.

Wohlers often visited the mill at Vilsen, and from the miller's family obtained a translation of the appeal of the British Methodists (1836) for workers for the Fiji mission field. (See WATKIN) He decided to become a missionary and with that in view he went to Bremen and afterwards to Hamburg. From 1837 to 1842 he studied in the Lutheran mission school of the Reformed North German Mission Union at Bremen, one of his fellow-pupils being Riemenschneider (q.v.). There he learned a little Latin and Greek before the mission decided that this was unnecessary. Instead, the missionaries should possess some handicraft so that they might build a farm establishment wherever they went. Wohlers undertook this laborious work with the others, who were all physically better suited for hard work. In Aug 1842 he was ordained in the Church of St Michael, Hamburg, and in Oct a service of intercession was held in the Church of St George on behalf of the four who were destined for New Zealand-Trost, Heine, Riemenschneider, and Wohlers. They sailed the day after Christmas in the St Pauli, with a full complement of German immigrants for Nelson. The agent for the company (N. Beit) took his family with him. Wohlers tells in his autobiography (published in English in 1895) how the use of the titles 'Mr,' 'Madam,' and 'Miss' amongst the German emigrants produced a feeling of self-respect which was quite new.

The St Pauli reached Nelson a few days before the disaster at the Wairau. There seemed to be few natives in the South Island not already within the jurisdiction of some Christian mission, and the German society wished to break new ground. Meanwhile, therefore, the missionaries established themselves in a hut in Nelson (placed at their disposal by Tuckett), and shortly moved to the upper Moutere Valley. The German immigrants were in sad straits, and relief was found for them on road works at Moutere. In Feb 1844 Tuckett invited Wohlers to accompany him in the schooner Deborah on a cruise to decide upon a suitable locality for the proposed New Edinburgh settlement. Wohlers accepted with gratitude. While in Banks Peninsula he made the acquaintance of Tuhawaiki (q.v.), and discussed the advisability of establishing a mission on his island, Ruapuke. While exploring with Creed on Banks Peninsula Wohlers lost his way, and the two were out on the hills for four days. Creed having been disembarked at Waikouaiti to relieve Watkin, the Deborah proceeded to Otago harbour. When she reached Foveaux strait (in the middle of May) Wohlers was rowed ashore at Ruapuke with all his belongings and took up his residence in the house of the chief. It was two years before his books and clothes reached Ruapuke, and for some years the usual period absorbed in writing to Germany and receiving a reply was two and a half years. Wohlers lived and travelled as a hermit, grew his own vegetables, but could not induce the Maori to do so. The small number of natives in the south would not justify the society in Germany in sending any more missionaries to that part of the country. Encouraged by Creed (q.v.), Wohlers set himself to learn the language, and by example communicated to the natives better ideas of order and cleanliness. He made good progress in collecting from the natives their myths and legends, many of which he submitted to Sir George Grey. His observations in natural history he communicated to von Haast, and thus was in stimulating touch with two great collaborators. In 1846, with the help of natives and some of the white men living near, Wohlers built a small church. When he had spent three or four years in Ruapuke he developed a tendency to melancholy, for which Creed prescribed a journey to Waikouaiti. At the end of 1848 a recruit, Brother Honoré (q.v.), arrived from Germany, and Wohlers commenced to erect a better house. He had received instructions to proceed to Nelson to ordain Heine as a pastor for the congregation of Germans there. Tuckett, now in England, remained a staunch friend, and in 1848 he sent Wohlers the machinery of a flourmill to be worked by oxen. Having neither oxen nor grain, Wohlers sold the mill in Dunedin, receiving in return the sum of £40 and his passage to Wellington. No money was received from Germany beyond the 5s per month which Wohlers had stipulated should be allowed to each missionary as pocket money.

While in Wellington, Wohlers met Volkner (q.v.), who had come to reinforce the mission, and he made the acquaintance of a widow, Elise Palmer, whom he married (1849). Having been appointed registrar of births, deaths and marriages, and being now a married missionary, Wohlers was in a better position to do beneficial work amongst the natives. He and his wife taught the Maori domestic crafts, and Wohlers was able to interest them in growing wheat, which they ground in their own mill until they found it more congenial to barter mutton birds for flour. They also raised good crops of potatoes, which they sold to Dunedin and Australia. In 1850 the mission house was burned down and Wohlers lost all his books and manuscripts. Much of the knowledge he had acquired from the Maori and the story of his own experiences he put on record in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute (1874, 1875, and 1881).

In 1862 the mission in Otago was strengthened by the appointment of Riemenschneider to Port Chalmers, but, as Wohlers had foreseen, the natives in Otago were inevitably drawn within the sphere of the churches of the colonists. In 1868, from funds which were available from government sources, a native school was opened at Ruapuke, of which Wohlers was given charge. Wohlers died on 7 May 1885.

Wohlers, op. cit. (p); Hocken; Buller; Roberts; Trans. N.Z. Institute; Otago Daily Times, 14 Mar 1930.

Reference: Volume 2, page 267

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