Oh, I'm sorry. If I use the KafkaConsumer class instead of the SimpleConsumer class (as you suggested) it works. Frustratingly, SimpleConsumer will take the auto_offset_reset parameter without complaining that no such parameter exists, yet it doesn't work properly! But KafkaConsumer works, so I'm in better shape now. Thank you.
Keith Wiley Senior Software Engineer, Atigeo keith.wi...@atigeo.com