My thanks to all who commented and assisted here. You have all been very helpful. What has emerged from the research to which you have pointed me is that, almost from the moment he landed in New Zealand, Robert Tindal engaged in a life of alcohol-fueled crime, mostly petty, but occasionally serious. He was sentenced multiple times to jail sentences with hard labour. This behaviour resulted in the estrangement from his wife, who, reportedly, was "hard-working and industrious".
It is my conclusion that he most likely ended his life as an alcoholic vagrant, and possibly died as an unknown or unrecognized person. But it is also likely that anecdotal news of his demise will likely have reached his family.
My best guess is that his demise came in around 1878. Up until that time his appearances before the courts had become increasingly frequent, ending up with a 3-month jail sentence on 31 Oct 1877. Thereafter, "Robert Tindall" appears more sporadically, and I believe these are instances of a different Robert Tindall.
