Tags: Ethnic Group.
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.