Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(N.Z.) useless, broken; thus as v., to ruin, to kill.

1863		Sydney Mail 12 Dec. 6/6: the enemy kept up a blazing fusilade all night, and yelled like infernal demons every quarter of an hour, "Puckeroo the hoya,"—kill the soldier!
1917		N.Z. At the Front xiv: (Gloss.) Pakaru. – Broken, smashed [DNZE].
1943		J.A.W. Bennett ‘Eng. as it is Spoken in N.Z.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 93: Pukkaroo, adjective and noun, (to make) worthless, useless – it could be used, for instance, of an engine that had broken down – is of dubious origin; [...] perhaps from the Maori pakaru, [...] or conceivably [...] an adaptation of ‘buggered’.
1952		J.H. Lyon Faring South 76: Bob related how a row of Maoris would push him off the paths of Wellington’s main streets, and with many insulting gestures, tell him to go to Taranaki, where they said he would be pukaru or finished.
1960		R.M. Muir Word for Word 174: His old man was pretty strict [...] Probably pukarooed any romances.
1969		B. Mason Awatea (1978) 81: The hui’s puckerooed for good! [Ibid.] 89: Then they come, to visit. But no hui! The hui is pakaru, pakaru.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 88/2: puckeroo ruin. Maori ‘pakaru’, broken or shattered to pieces, used WW1 soldiers, eg ‘This torch is puckerooed.’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 163: puckeroo To ruin. Maori pakaru, broken. Other spellings include buckeroo, pukaroo, pukaru, pukeroo and pukkaroo. If you are puckerooed you are totally tired, as in ‘buggered’.