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New Zealand
Haskell was also keen to spread the message throughout New Zealand, which he had visited briefly on his initial voyage to Australia. He returned to Auckland four months later to begin marketing the soon-to-be-released religious paper, The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times.
He stayed at a boarding house run by Edward Hare and his wife Elizabeth. They became intrigued with Haskell and invited him to speak to two of the Christian groups in Auckland. Haskell spoke on 'the Sabbath' and the 'Second Advent' and created a great deal of discussion among the groups. Over time, Edward and his wife accepted Haskell's teachings and became the first agents for The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times.
A Seventh-day Adventist Church camp-meeting,
held in Auckland, New Zealand in 1912
Edward Hare urged Haskell to visit the rest of his family, who lived 250km north of Auckland at Kaeo, and sensing an opportunity, Haskell eagerly agreed. Joseph Hare, a school teacher from Ireland, was a devout man who enjoyed studying the Bible and sharing his faith. He spent much time with Haskell in long and detailed studies of the Bible. After one particular all-night study, he agreed to accept the teachings and become a Seventh-day Adventist, a decision his family also joined with.
 Ormondville Church was established in 1893, in North New Zealand |
Reports of Haskell's early success in New Zealand, caused the leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in America to delegate Arthur Grosvenor Daniells, an evangelist and former school teacher, along with his wife to travel to New Zealand to develop the work further in that country. Daniells, unsure of where exactly he had been asked to go, reportedly had to consult an atlas to learn its geographic location |
Daniells had astounding success through his dynamic preaching and on October 15, 1887, he opened the first Seventh-day Adventist church in New Zealand at Ponsonby. Daniells would eventually go on to become the world president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
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