[5] After ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote the Tablets of the Divine Plan which mentions New Zealand[6] the community grew quickly so that the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of the country was attempted in 1923[7] or 1924[8] and then succeeded in 1926.
[13] In 1853 there was an event with caused great suffering on Babís ( who Baháʼís hold as a direct precursor akin to the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus.
Recent scholarship has identified a fringe element distinct from all the major aspects of the religion, its community and leadership at the time.
New Zealander Wilhelmina Sherriff Bain may have met Sarah Jane Farmer, a notable Baháʼí in the United States, (see Green Acre) in 1904.
Whoever her contact was, Bain authored a large detailed article in the Otago Witness published edition of 30 December 1908[2] about the religion.
[2] Robert Felkin had met ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in London in 1911[4] and in 1912 moved to New Zealand where he helped found the Whare Ra.
[8] Meanwhile, Auckland resident Margaret Stevenson's sister living in the United Kingdom had sent her a copy of "The Christian Commonwealth"[9] which had reported on ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's speech in London on 27 March 1911.
In 1912 Stevenson rented a room to English Baháʼí Dorothea Spinney – a traveling performer of Greek plays – who had just arrived from New York via Auckland.
[8] In 1924 Martha Root shared news that Shoghi Effendi, then head of the religion, had space to receive New Zealander Baháʼís undertaking pilgrimage.
[28][29] In 1925 Stevenson left with two other New Zealand converts as well as a contingent from Australia for a year-long trip on pilgrimage where they stayed some 19 days and then visited with the community of the Baháʼí Faith in the United Kingdom.
They also returned with some dust from the Tomb of Baháʼu'lláh which was placed in New Zealand soil at Stevenson's home in a ceremony held on 14 February 1926.
In 1947 Alvin and Gertrude Blum left the United States for New Zealand where they lived until 1953 when they pioneered and became Knights of Baháʼu'lláh for the Solomon Islands.
[9] In 1953 the first standing Hand of the Cause, the highest appointed position in the religion open to all, ʻAlí-Akbar Furútan, visited New Zealand.
[10] In 1957 the New Zealand community held its first independent convention to elect its own National Spiritual Assembly with three delegates from Auckland and two each from Devonport, New Plymouth and Wellington.
[36] The members of the National Assembly, who participated in the convention for the first election of the Universal House of Justice, were: Hugh Blundell, John Carr, Margaret Harnish, Linda Hight, Percy Leadley, Phyllis Milne, Jean Simmons, Douglas Weeks, and Terry Stirling.
[51] In 2012 then 13-year-old Rima Shenoy submitted a video that won first place in the Race Unity Speech Awards of the New Zealand Police and the Baháʼís.
Though the National Assembly had consulted with Tawhai's wife about burial, Pakaka's tribal family, the Ngati Porou, confronted the Baháʼís during the tangihanga, demanding to take his body back to Ruatoria.
[55] Then member of the Universal House of Justice Peter Khan spoke at a conference in New Zealand in 2000, noting that the Universal House of Justice had received letters "written in distasteful language" from New Zealand – he encouraged systematic education of children, application of a moral life, a serious study of the Covenant of Baháʼu'lláh, and study of the writings of Shoghi Effendi.
[59] The Baháʼí on Air television show is broadcast weekly on Auckland's Triangle TV which also covers the Cook Islands, American Samoa, and Adelaide, Australia.