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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.

On 12 February the Cook Strait ferry Penguin struck rocks off Cape Terawhiti and sank with the loss of 72 lives.

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.

On 12 September 43 coal miners were killed in an explosion at Ralph’s Mine, Waikato.

At about the time of Te Whiti's death at Parihaka, another community sprang up at Maungapōhatu in the Ureweras comprising followers of the Tūhoe prophet Rua Kenana. This breakaway community attracted Māori disgruntled with the Pākehā system. The last instance of armed Māori resistance occurred at Maungapōhatu. Rua had discouraged recruitment for the First World War and broke prohibitionist laws by selling alcohol. A large expedition, commanded by the Commissioner of Police himself, made its way into the Ureweras and, after a shoot-out in which Rua's son died, the prophet was arrested. Justice Chapman firmly expressed society's displeasure with dissidents at Rua's trial for sedition, saying his 18-month sentence 'is the lesson your people should learn from this trial'.

In the early 21st century anxiety over the danger of Influenza A virus subtypes H5N1 (avian flu) and more recently H1N1 (swine flu) has revived memories of New Zealand's worst disease outbreak, the lethal influenza pandemic that struck between October and December 1918.

In 1918, as the following of its leader T.W. Ratana grew, the Ratana religious movement opened an office near Wanganui. The Ratana movement picked up aspects of the defiant spirit of the Parihaka community but softened its separatist stance and had a strong focus on largely Christian religion and healing. Its leaders also had economic and modernising goals. In the 1920s Ratana formed a political arm, and from the mid-1930s it entered into an alliance with the Labour party, in an arrangement whereby Labour nominated Ratana leaders as its candidates in the Māori electorates. By 1943, Ratana/Labour candidates had won all four Māori seats, thus gaining a much stronger voice in governing circles. The new members also brought into the Labour caucus the long-standing Ratana demand that the Treaty be 'ratified'.