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| Dictionary Of New Zealand Biography Maketu, Wiremu Kingi ? - 1842 Nga Puhi youth, farmworker, murderer 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. His employer was Elizabeth Roberton, a widow. Her household comprised her eight-year-old son, Gordon; her two-year-old daughter; a servant, Thomas Bull; and Isabella Brind, the grand-daughter of Nga Puhi leader Rewa. Isabella's parents were William Darby Brind, a whaling captain, and Moewaka, Rewa's daughter. For some time Thomas Bull had been mistreating Maketu, and kicked him during a dispute about payment. Two days later, on 20 November 1841, Maketu killed Bull by splitting his head with an axe as he slept. He then killed Elizabeth Roberton and later explained that she had sworn at him. Clearly he had felt sufficient provocation to strike them down. They had offended his mana. He also killed the two girls, pursued the boy across the island and threw him over a cliff. Maketu provided no explanation for the killing of the children. After the murders he took refuge at his father's village. Hundreds of Maori gathered; Bay of Islands settlers, without military protection, feared that the murders signalled the beginning of a Maori uprising. Some settlers suspected that Pakeha ruffian elements were fomenting trouble in the hope of gaining from Maori unrest. 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 grand-daughter 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, and hanged on 7 March 1842. On the morning of his execution, at his own request, Maketu was baptised in the Anglican rite by the Reverend John Churton. He took the name Wiremu Kingi. After his death his relatives asked for his body but this was refused and it was interred within the gaol. Ten months later Ruhe begged for his son's bones and the request was granted. Maketu's body was exhumed and deposited in the family cemetery at the Bay of Islands. 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 and 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 woman, Rangihoua Kuika, at Wairau in April 1843, despite overwhelming evidence of guilt. To the newly established colonial government, Maketu's surrender, trial and execution were the first major test of the application of British law to a Maori offender; the authority of the Crown and its officials was successfully upheld. The case went some way towards establishing that the government would have jurisdiction over cases of inter-racial violence. However, as the CMS missionary Henry Williams noted, it was the killing of Rewa's grand-daughter that made Nga Puhi auxiliaries for the government. STEVEN OLIVER Lennard, M. Motuarohia. Auckland, 1959 HOW TO CITE THIS BIOGRAPHY:Oliver, Steven. 'Maketu, Wiremu Kingi ? - 1842'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 22 June 2007URL: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/The original version of this biography was published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography Volume One (1769-1869), 1990© Crown Copyright 1990-2009. Published by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Wellington, New Zealand. All rights reserved. |