Roberton Island Killings Factsheet

The Roberton Household

The Victims
Elizabeth Roberton, widowed owner of farm.
Elixabeths husband and eldest son had recently drowned in boating accident. Her body was found in
burnt farmhouse.
Gordon Roberton, Elizabeths eight year old son.
Gordons body was found at the bottom of a cliff.
Askena Roberton, Elizabeths two year old daughter.
Body found in burnt farmhouse.
Thomas Bull, head farmhand for the Robertons.
Thomas was killed by an axe blow to his head. He was known to have beaten Maketu.
Isabella Brind, grand-daughter of Nga Puhi leader Rewa.
Isabella's parents were William Darby Brind, a whaling captain, and Moewaka, Rewa's daughter.
Isabella was employed as a servant by the Robertons. Her body was also found in the burnt
farmhouse.
The Suspect

Maketu, also known as Maketu Wharetotara, the son of Nga Puhi chief Ruhe, was born in the
hinterland of the Bay of Islands. In 1841, when he was about 16 years of age, he was employed to do
farm work on Motuarohia, in the Bay of Islands.
Maketu claimed credit for the killings of the Robertons, Thomas Bull, and Isabella Brind. Maketu
claimed that he killed Thomas Bull first as a result of Thomas hitting him and thus insulting his mana
as a son of a chief. He then said that when he told Mrs Roberton this that she swore at him and said
he would hang for this. He then killed her with his axe. Maketu gave no explanation for his killing the
children or that of Isabella Brind.

Roberton Island Killings Factsheet

What Happened after the killings
After the killings Maketu took refuge at his father's village. Hundreds of Maori gathered; Bay of
Islands settlers, feared that the murders signaled the beginning of a Maori uprising. A British warship
remained in the area for some days until it was clear that this was not the start of an uprising. In the
midst of these tensions Thomas Beckham, police magistrate, refused to involve himself or his men in
apprehending Maketu, for fear of offending Maori kinsmen.
However, Maketu's own actions led to his surrender and ensured his death. In killing Rewa's granddaughter he had given good cause for intertribal hostility. Christianity and the Treaty of Waitangi had
largely brought peace to the Bay of Islands area and, to avoid war with Rewa, Ruhe surrendered his
son.
Nga Puhi leaders, among them Pomare II, Waikato, Tamati Waka Nene, Rewa, and Ruhe himself,
met at Paihia on 16 December 1841 and issued a statement dissociating themselves from Maketu's
action, saying that he had acted alone and that they had no wish for war. Only Hone Heke spoke
against handing him over to the government. The statement was forwarded to the government at
Auckland with the request that Maketu not be returned to the north.
On 1 March 1842 Maketu was tried at Auckland in the new Supreme Court building before Chief
Justice William Martin. The Crown appointed C. B. Brewer as Maketu's legal counsel and the
missionary George Clarke, with his son (also George), as interpreters; the proceedings were
translated into Maori by Edward Meurant. Maketu pleaded not guilty. In his address to the jury Brewer
observed that all the witnesses to the killings were dead; the only evidence against Maketu was his
own confessions, one to Thomas Spicer, a Kororareka (Russell) storekeeper, who had mounted an
impromptu investigation of the murders, and another to the coroner at the inquest.
Maketu, however, had on several occasions admitted his guilt and witnesses were called to confirm
his presence on Motuarohia on the day of the murders. He was convicted, by an all European jury,
and hanged on 7 March 1842.
Maketu was the first person hanged by legal process in New Zealand. Although there was little Maori
opposition to his execution, there was shock over the way in which he was executed; it was seen as
drawn out and cold-blooded. Under Maori custom Maketu would have been killed immediately,
probably by a blow from a mere. Maori also contrasted the hanging of Maketu with the failure of
British justice to convict and execute the European murderer of a Maori woman, Rangihoua Kuika, at
Wairau in April 1843, despite overwhelming evidence of guilt.