History
New Zealand's religious history after the arrival of the Europeans was characterised by substantial missionary activities (with Māori conversions to Christian faith generally being voluntarily, unlike some missionary work in previous centuries in other parts of the world) as well as by the new immigrants bringing their particular Christian faiths with them.
The religious climate of early New Zealand was influenced by 'voluntarism'. Whereas in Britain, the Anglican Church was an established state church, by the middle of the 19th century even the Anglicans themselves sometimes doubted this arrangement, while the other major denominations of the new colony (Presbyterians, Methodist and Catholics) obviously preferred that the local set up allowed for all their groups.
Initial religious distribution was heavily influenced by the fact that local communities were still small and often came from comparatively small regions in the origin countries in Great Britain. As a result, by the time of the 1921 census, no uniform distribution existed amongst the Non-Māori Christian, with Presbyterians being the dominant group in Otago and Southland, Anglicans in the Far North, the East Cape and various other areas including the Banks Peninsula, while Methodists flourished mainly in the Taranaki and Manawatu. Catholicism meanwhile was the dominant religion on the West Coast with its many mining concerns, and in Central Otago. The Catholic Church, while not being particularly dominant in terms of pure numbers, became especially known throughout the country in the early and middle 20th century for its strong stance on education, establishing large numbers of schools.
Read more about this topic: Religion In New Zealand
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