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The first export shipment of frozen meat left Port Chalmers on the Dunedin on 15 February 1882, arriving in London on 24 May. The Dunedin's successful arrival meant that the whole world was now accessible for the trade of New Zealand's primary produce.

Reefton, on the South Island's West Coast, was the first town in the Southern Hemisphere to be lit by hydroelectricity – only six years after this "bottled lightning" became commercially available in the USA. The first state electricity scheme at Lake Coleridge was not opened until 1914.

A Royal Commission investigated the state of the laws controlling the administration of Māori land. It found that the situation could hardly have been more unworkable had governments over the years deliberately tried to make it so. Fragmentation of ownership and the complex and contradictory nature of the laws meant that almost nothing could be done. By now, only 50 years after the Treaty's signing, Māori had virtually no land in the South Island and less than 40 percent of the North Island. What they did still have was largely of poor quality and hard to develop, the areas that the settlers had not wanted. The Commission made many recommendations to improve the situation, but few were implemented, largely because they were inconsistent with government policy.

Frustrated at the lack of success in securing a remedy for their grievances, Māori in different parts of the country convened large meetings, which were called parliaments. Following meetings at Waitangi and Orakei, a Māori congress or parliament (called "Kotahitanga": unity) met for the first time at Waipawa in Hawkes Bay. This Kotahitanga then moved to several other locations and developed a more permanent base at Pāpāwai, Greytown. The King movement's own parliament was called Kauhanganui. Both aimed to unify Māori, but neither wholly succeeded. Māori MPs such as Wi Pere and Hone Heke Ngapua drafted bills and introduced them to Parliament in Wellington, seeking recognition of the Kotahitanga. They were not successful, but in 1900 Carroll and Ngata persuaded the Liberal government of Richard Seddon to set up a system of regional and local Māori councils. The councils had some success in dealing with matters such as health and alcohol sales and in slowing the sale of land. But from 1905 their powers began to be weakened again when the Reform government, which took office in 1911, resumed a vigorous programme of land purchase. The Kotahitanga faded rapidly after the turn of the century.

Since 1875, women had been able to vote in all municipal elections. In 1891 English immigrant Kate Sheppard, detecting an undercurrent of desire for electoral change, organised a nationwide petition that sought to give women the right to vote in nationwide elections. Much of the impetus for change came from men, who argued that women would bring a more civilised and considered approach to politics.

While eager to show itself as separate and self-sufficient, yet still a member of the British Empire, New Zealand was the first colony to offer troops to Britain in its conflict with the South African Boers. Some 6500 troops, all volunteers and mostly self-equipped, were sent, particularly mounted rifles, who could be expected to match the Boers' style of warfare. This was to be a white men's war; Māori troops were not accepted.

On 1 January 1901, the six colonies of Australia amalgamated into the one, federally organised Commonwealth of Australia. The new Australian constitution provided for New Zealand to join as the seventh state, but New Zealand refused.

More than half a century after being granted its own responsible government, New Zealand's independence and separate identity were further recognised when its status was changed from being a colony of Great Britain to being a Dominion.

It is estimated that the population of New Zealand surpassed the one million mark during 1910. The 1911 census listed New Zealand's population as 1,058,313. A breakdown of census results showed that "citification" was already a common phenomenon. With 10 percent of the population resident in Auckland and more than 50 percent living in cities, concerns emerged about economic sustainability and the quality of lifestyle in the new urban areas.

New Zealand enthusiastically participated in this conflict on behalf of Britain, which was still often referred to as "Home". Forty-two percent of males aged between 19 and 45, some 10 percent of the total population, saw active service. Some Māori opposed joining in a European war. Others supported full Māori participation. In 1915-16, three contingents of Māori Pioneers left for Egypt but they were restricted to garrison duties. On 26 June 1917 Māori were recognised as full participants and became liable for conscription. This led to the formation of the Māori Battalion, commanded however by Pākehā officers.