death penalty

Execution of Burgess, Kelly and Levy

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Report of the executions on 5 October 1866. The report leaves out the gruesome detail that the hangman had to jump to the ground and swing on Kelly's legs until his 'struggles ceased'.

On the evening of 28 April 1955 a cold and hungry Edward Te Whiu broke into the house of Florence Smith, a 75-year-old widow, with the intention of robbing her. Smith was in bed when she heard him and turned on the light. He attacked her, fracturing her skull, breaking her jaw and nose, knocking out her denture and breaking the hyoid bone in her throat. She died rapidly from asphyxiation.

On 7 March 1842 Maketu Wharetotara, the 17-year-old son of the Nga Puhi chief Ruhe of Waimate, became the first official execution in New Zealand. Maketu was hanged at the corner of Queen and Victoria Streets in Auckland for the murder of Mrs Roberton, her two children and two others at the Bay of Islands the previous November.

Level 5 social studies

Some suggested activities

1. Divide the class into groups of four, and ask each group to draw up a list of three arguments for and three arguments against the use of the death penalty for murder.
2. As a whole class, compile a list of the arguments that each group came up with. As a wider discussion you might want to consider things like the most common arguments.
3. Ask your students why they believe some people support the reintroduction of the death penalty as a punishment.
4. You could now use this discussion to hold your own class poll on the matter. You may wish to conduct the poll in a way where responses are anonymous. Ask the same question that was asked by TV One: Do you support the reintroduction of the death penalty (capital punishment) in New Zealand? It could be interesting not to reveal the results of the TV poll until after you have published the class results to ensure your students are not unduly influenced. You could display your class results as a graph.
5. Individual responses: students can write their own views on the matter either as a piece of personal writing, as a letter to the editor or as a letter to a politician. You may wish to give students an opportunity to read some of their responses to the class.
6. Static images: opposition to the death penalty has taken many forms and has involved personal protest and statements as well as opposition on an organised scale. Get your class to design posters that might be used by an organisation that opposes the death penalty and its possible reintroduction.

NCEA Level 3

The execution of Maketu can support the broad survey of 19th-century New Zealand at NCEA Level 3. It provides an opportunity to break the bigger themes, such as the establishment of British authority and maintenance of Maori sovereignty, into manageable bites for students. In particular it could:

Mokomoko, 17 May 1866

The Te Whakatohea chief Mokomoko was one of five Maori executed on 17 May 1866 for being implicated in the murder of the missionary Carl Völkner at Opotiki in 1865. The government punished Te Whakatohea further for Völkner's death by confiscating much of Te Whakatohea's land.

Völkner's death had occurred during what some described as the 'Hauhau disturbances'. Völkner was considered to be a government spy, and ignoring warnings from Te Whakatohea to stay away in March 1865, he was seized at Opotiki and later taken to a tree and hanged. Mokomoko denied responsibility for the killing. He claimed that he went away after the decision was made to kill Völkner and was not present at the death. His descendants claim that earlier he had tried to help Völkner escape.