Details have been received from New Zealand, almost too horrible
for transcription, of the circumstances attending the murder of a missionary, the Rev. C. S. Volkner, by Maori fanatics. His body was afterwards cut up by: these poor wretches, portions of it, including the eyes, eaten, and his blood drunk. According to an eye-witness, there was "a fearful scramble among the women" as to who should get the most of the latter. Mr. Volkner had been devoted for eighteen years to missionary work. He was a native of Cassel, and went out under the North German Missionary Society, afterwards entered the Church of England, joined the Church Missionary Society, and went to live at Opotiki, a Maori village at the southern corner of the Bay of Plenty, and here he died, within a hundred yards of his own church. The most horrible part of the work was done by a party of travelling fanatics of the Pai Marire faith, but his own flock took part in it, though he had laboured unselfishly among them for many years. It must therefore have been a martyrdom not merely of the body, but of the heart and soul.
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