Pepene Eketone (ca. 1856 – 9 November 1933) was a New Zealand interpreter, native agent, assessor and politician. Of Māori descent, he identified with the Ngāti Maniapoto iwi. He was born in Taranaki, New Zealand in circa 1856.[1]
He sometimes used an English name, which was based on missionaries, and was thus known as Fairburn Eggleston or Fairburn Eccleston.[1] The official return for the 1931 election lists him as Pepene Tango Eketone;[2] the middle name is not mentioned in his Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.[1]
Eketone was politically active and contested his first general election in 1887, when he stood in the Western Maori electorate; he came third out of five candidates.[3][4] In the 1890 election, he came second after the incumbent, Hoani Taipua.[5] In the 1896 election, he was one of 13 candidates in the Western Maori electorate and came seventh.[6]
He had one last (unsuccessful) attempt of getting elected in the Western Maori electorate in the 1931 general election;[1] of the six candidates, he came fourth.[2]