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Maori Chief Kereopa hated missionaries and all their works. Himself strictly an eye-for-an-eye man, he had vowed to get even with the men of God ever since an overzealous missionary had locked his relatives in a church which had then accidentally burned down before anyone could unlock the doors. So one day in 1865, when Kereopa happened on the Rev. Carl Volkner in a lonely spot, he killed him, taking care to eat the dead man's eyes so the ghost would not stare at him. The New Zealand Government promptly offered a -L-1,000 reward for the murderer, and several years later another Maori chief named Wari Te Whiu turned Kereopa in.

Kereopa was speedily hanged, but soon afterward Te Whiu himself fell into disfavor with the British. Possibly the disagreement arose from Te Whiu's claim that the British had never paid him his reward. Whatever the cause, it ended in the Government's confiscating all his property. Te Whiu died in poverty.

Last week, still simmering about the whole thing, Te Whiu's descendants petitioned New Zealand's Government for the return of 1,500 acres and payment of -L-150,000--or -L-1,000 reward money at compound interest for 76 years.

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