“THE EYE-EATER”

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10392, 9 May 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

“THE EYE-EATER”

MURDER OF REV. C. VOLKNER, AWFUL SCENE IN OPOTIKI CHURCH. HAUHAUISM INI THE SIXTIES-. The bloodthirsty nature of the followers of the Pai-marire faith, or Hauhaus, as they were generally called, who descended on the Poverty Bay Flats in 1860, and under Te Kooti murdered 70 Europeans and friendly Alaoris, is little understood by many of the, present generation. They were not merely Alaoris fighting for the love of warfare, or righting alleged wrongs by the pakelia; they were religious fanatics of the worst type, and no more telling example ot this can he given than in the account of the death of the Rev. C. S. Volkner, at Opotiki, in 1865, only three years before Te Kooti set out on his campaign of murder in Poverty Bay. There can be little doubt that some of those concerned in the ghastly work at Opotiki were with tlie.Poverty Bay rebels later, and if, as i§ assumed in some quarters, Te Ivooti intended to descend on Tmviuganui after despatching the families at Alatawhero, the consequences would have boon awful. The opinion was generally held by the settlers at Turanganui that such was To Kouti\s"uitention. Air. Roll. The I wall, for instance, states that on the morning of the Afassacre, some of Te Ivooti’s scouts, after completing their work on the Flats, came down within a quarter of a mile of Turanganui. " The locality was then, of course, all covered with manuka and fern. Fortunately, however, they decided to retire. Still, with the ‘Opotiki tragedy fresh in their ears, it c-an easily he understood that pakehas in Poverty Bnv in 1868 were constantly on the qui vive for the re-appearance of tbo religions fanatics of the Paimarire faith.

HAUHAUS TURN AGAINST MISSION ARIES.

Tn the earlier campaign of the Maori wars the missionaries had been respected, but in 1865 the Hatthaus no longer regarded them as sacred. March of that year saw the worst atrocity of the Pai-marire Tvar, the murder of the Rev. Carl Sylvius' Volkner, at Opotiki. by Kereopa and his hand of fanatics. Kereopa To Ran (also' called Tuhawho) and Patara Raukntauri were the two prophets despatched by 'j e Ua (the founder of the faith) in' 1860 to convert the*tribes of the East Coast to the Pai-marire faith. They had With them two deserters from the British forces. One of these renegades was Loins Baker, a Frcncli-Cunadian-Indinn half-breed. At one time in his ooroer lie had been a stoker on H.M.S. Rosario. There is ample documentary proof that the founders of_tho Pai-marire faith did not authorise murders—or indeed hostile acts of any kind—on the proselytising mission to tlie East Coast. 011 his arrival at AA’hakatane Kereopa demanded that the Ngati-Awas should hand over to him the Roman Catholic priest of the district. Pending their reply iie travelled to Opotiki. ( Later it was stated the priest was spared because he was a brent-li-man). MISSIONARY REFUSES TO LEAVE POST. The Pai-marire faith was expounded at Opotiki, and nearly the whole cf the MTi.-ikatohea tribes became converts. Patara then demanded of the chiefs their missionary, the Rev. C. Volkner, whom he desired to sacrifice to the god of Pai-marire. Mr. Volkner was one of several German Lutheran- clergymen who had come out to work amongst the Natives of New Zealand. He was a member of the Church of England and worked with zeal and devotion to improve the moral condition of the Whakatohea people. He built a fine church in the principal settlement. This clmreli (now known as St. Senhcn the Martyr’s') is now the Anglican place of worship in Opotiki. AYh on Te tin’s apostles readied Opotiki in February, 1860, Mr. Yolklier was absent in Auckland. Patara wrote a letter to him ordering him not to return, as no missionaries would he allowed to remain. On March 1 the ccfhstal steamer Eclipse, arrived at Opotiki from Auckland, Mr. Volkner being a passenger. He had been warned in Auckland that itwas dangerous for him to return, but bo could not be dissuaded. On arrival Mr. Volkner and another missionary, the Bov Thomas Grace, were arrested. Koremvi l y this time had thoroughly established liis power over the greater nart of the tribe, and at a meeting that night it was resolved that Mr. Volkner should he handed over to Kereopa and Mr. Grace kept prisoner. THE EXECUTION. On the afternoon of March 2. stated MV. James Cowan in his “N.Z. Wars,” Mr. Volkner was taken out of his prison by an armed guard and marched into his church, which was crowded with fearfully excited people. Kereopa, standing by tlie altar, ordered the missionary to be brought, before him. He announced that Mr. Volkner must die that dnv. the l ' stripped the missionary of his eon 1 and waistcoat, which he (Kereopa'’ put on and ordered the minister to Tie hanged. A,n armed guard took him to a large willow tree one hundred yards away and a rope was putround his neck. He knelt down and prayed and then rose and shook hands with some of those around hint. The executioners hauled on the rope and the missionary’s body hung lifeless. Jt is said that Kereopa shot Mr. Volkner as he was run up the branch.

BLOOD CAUGHT INI CHALICE. ■ The body was hauled up and down several times, and after Hanging lor about an hour was lowered and taken to a spot near the church. Here the head was cut'off with an axe by Heremita and the Natives crowded up to catch the blood and drink it. 'Kereopa had taken from the church vestry the ■white-metal Communion chalice. This he Tilled with the blood as it spurted forth, and he carried it, with the head, to the church, followed 111 procession by all the people. KEREOPA SWALLOWS VICTIM’S EYES. That scene in <r Hiena”—“Zion” as the Opotiki church was called by Volkner’s old congregation, was of a character revolting beyond measure. It was as if a devil had entered into the people. Assuredly there was a demon before them thei-c in human form, at once terrifying them and fascinating them by his sheer savagery. Kereopa, dressed in liis victim’s long black coat, stood in Volkner’s pulpit and, placed the dripping head on the reading desk in front of him. By its side he set the Communion cup of blood. “Hear O Israel,” lie cried. “This is the word of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Wo are liie Jews who were lost and should have been, persecuted. Behold!” Gripping the head, he gouged out both eyes. He held an eye up in each hand between fingers .and thumbs. “Listen, 0 tribe!” he said. “This eye is the Parliament of England, and this one is the law- of New Zealand.” So saying he swallowed them one after the other. The second eye stuck in liis throat, and lie called for a drink of water to help him swallow it. He picked up the head from the floor where he had dropped it, and set it up in front of him again on the pulpit-desk. DRINKING THE BLOOD. Then the cannibal priest took up the Communion chalice (containing the blood) and drank of its contents, He passed it to one of his flock, who put it to his lips and took a sip, and it was then passed from hand to hand among the congregation. Some put it to their lips to taste their missionary’s blood ; others dipped leaves into the c-up and sprinkled themselves with its contents. The empty cup was carried bac-k to the desecrated pulpit where the head lay. The stains of the martyred missionary's blood remain in the wood of the reading desk till this day. The atrocious deed earned for the arch-murderer the epithet ‘Kai-karu' or ‘Kai-whata,” the “Eye Eater.” Six years later when he was captured in the Urewera' Country, he said he knew Tie would meet with misfortune sooner or later, because one ot “Te Whakaua’s eyes stuck in his throat” ; it was an aitua, an unlucky happening and a portent of death. From the church Mr. Volkner’s head was taken to the house of the Roman Catholic- priest, where it was set on the mantelpiece. Then it was carried to the murdered man’s house, Peria. Tlie object was to whaka-no,-i or “make common” and pollute with blood all tlie places sacred to the Christian ministers. MURDERER’S END. The victim’s head, according to the Natives, was later smoke-dried, and when Kereopa continued his travels to Tangaroa he took the head with him. the bearer being the renegade Louis Baker. Later the head was taken to South Taupo. and it is reported to have been bidden in a cave at Roto-a-Ira or Tongariro. Kereopa was captured six yea 1 s later in the Urewera by Major Ropata and his band of Xeati-Porous taken across country to AA’airca and shipped to Napier. The reward of -£IOOO offered by the Government for Kereopa’s arrest was paid over to Colonel Porter, who returned from Hawke’s Bay, and the money was distributed amongst the NgntiPorous, officers receiving £23 each and the men £lO. Kereopa was tried at Napier, after an unsuccessful attempt at suicide with a razor, and the Eve-Eater was convicted and hanged.