After an investigation, he was dismissed from the Wesleyan ministry two years later due to having been deemed to have conducted inappropriate commercial activity while in charge of the missions in New Zealand.

[1][2] Shortly after his ordination, White left for Australia aboard the Deveron, where he transferred to the St. Michael, which carried supplies for the proposed WMS station.

[1][7][8] In the meantime, the original WMS station at Kaeo had been abandoned after being raided by local Māori and the Wesleyan missionaries had relocated to the Hokianga.

[10] White's objective at Māngungu was to expand the reach of the WMS, and he duly established further missions at Kāwhia and Waingaroa, on the west coast of the North Island.

[11] He soon came into conflict with Hobbs over the running of the mission who within weeks of White's arrival, wrote to the WMS in London requesting a new posting.

Colonists were upset at being disadvantaged by this tactic but White also annoyed his fellow WMS missionaries, who had to perform the saw milling work and considered it compromised their preaching.

[1] His downfall came in 1836, when White sought to prevent Thomas McDonnell, who owned a store at nearby Horeke and had an official role in the area as Additional British Resident, subordinate to James Busby in the Bay of Islands, from purchasing land at Kaipara.

It was deemed that the WMS property at Mangungu had been misused and there was undue focus on commercial activity, even though it was intended to prevent Māori from being exploited.

Although the working relationship was initially amicable, he soon came to the belief that the company would employ underhand tactics to obtain land from Māori and parted ways.

[1] He tried to disrupt the activities of the New Zealand Company in the Waikato and Taranaki by making frequent trips to these regions and discouraging local Māori from selling their land.

[18] In 1839, he raised his own allegations of inappropriate conduct against the missionaries James Wallis, John Whiteley, Nathaniel Turner and William Woon, although these were overshadowed by counterclaims, made by local Māori, against White of ongoing poor treatment of women.

[1][20] However, his commercial interests suffered after the Aurora, on which he was travelling along with a load of his timber, sank at Kaipara Harbour on 27 April 1840, an event which nearly claimed his life.

They settled in Grey's Avenue in central Auckland while he returned north to support Tāmati Wāka Nene, a prominent Ngāpuhi rangatira (chief), in the fighting against Hōne Heke.

[24] White died at his home on 25 November 1875, aged 81; reportedly, not long beforehand he had ridden a horse for 40 miles (64 km) and then exhausted himself gardening the next day.

[7][25] John Hobbs presided over the interment of White's remains at Symonds Street Cemetery in Auckland, at which several other clergymen were present.