It was a man named Samuel Marsden, a British arrival, who carried out the first missionary work in New Zealand. He arrived in 1814 at the Bay of Islands and as part of his work with the Church Missionary Society of the Church of England he was able to construct a mission station there. This led to no less than 20 mission stations being constructed by 1840 in various places across the country.

The missionaries who arrived in the country to try to bring Christianity to the Maori did more than introduce them to a new religion though. They were able to teach them about trades and how to earn money from their work. They also taught them how to read and write and they were able to pass on European farming techniques to help make their agriculture work more successful and productive.

In return, the Maori also helped the missionaries to understand their culture and language. Samuel Lee was a linguist and he worked with Hongi Hika, one of the Maori chiefs, to understand and transcribe the Maori language, giving it a written form for the first time. This work led to the translation of two books of the Bible into Maori by 1835 and these were printed by the Church Missionary Society.

Prior to the arrival of Christianity, the Maori had their own faith and belief system, but some did accept the new religion, joining both the Church of England and the Catholic Church, which arrived a little later.