Te Haeata (The Dawn, 1859-1862) was a religious newspaper edited by Te Patara (Reverend Thomas Buddle) at Onehunga. The newspaper was established by the Wesleyan missionaries to convey the good news to people desiring knowledge, particularly of the church, and to instruct them in the customs of the Pakeha. Te Haeata was the first denominational newspaper in New Zealand. 

Content and subjects include:

- scriptural lessons

- correspondence, mostly from Waikato

- instructions on bringing up children

- meetings held by Wesleyan missionaries

- a plea to halt Maori feasts

- moral tales

- the Kohimarama Conference between Maori chiefs and the Governor in 1860

- speeches from gatherings at Waikato and Kawhia

- accounts of the war in Europe

- accounts of the warfare at Taranaki

- collecting money for building churches

- warnings about the 1860 smallpox epidemic in Auckland

- information about the runanga (Maori self-government) system.

For further information about the newspaper see Y Sutherland, ‘Church and Identity in the Wesleyan Newspaper, Te Haeata’, in Rere Atu, Taku Manu! edited by J Curnow, N Hopa and J McRae (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2002), pp. 98–114; and P Parkinson and P Griffiths, Books in Maori (Auckland: Reed, 2004), S9, pp. 753–754.

The National Library would like to thank Gail Dallimore for providing information used in essays about Maori newspapers.