French New Zealanders are New Zealanders who are of French ancestry or a French-born person who resides in New Zealand.
The French were amongst the earlier European settlers in New Zealand, and established a colony at Akaroa on the South Island.
Captain Jean-François Marie de Surville is the first known Frenchman to have visited New Zealand, in 1769, and by the 1830s, French whalers were operating off the Banks Peninsula.
In 1835, Jean-Baptiste François Pompallier was the first bishop of any denomination in New Zealand.
Religion
Source: 2013 Census
References
French New Zealanders Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA