there were & are MANY Snell in New Zealand

Do you have a particular area in NZ you want to look ??

Yes . My family came to Auckland and then went on to mine tin on Kauwau Island .They were the original settlers of Snell's Beach and owned a farm here .

Time Line of Kawau Island one of the largest, and most beautifu, islands in the Hauraki Gulf

[url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/kawau-island/1]The Island {/url] was originally purchased from the Maori by J. Taylor in 1837

A manganese mine was established on the island in the 1840s; shortly after, copper was discovered by accident

Copper was mined on the island after discovery in 1842, in the first years of European ownership. With imported miners and their families from Wales and Cornwall, the mining settlement finally reached a maximum of around 300 people, before problems with shipping and mine flooding closed the mine again in 1885.
The island was bought a few years later by Sir George Grey, Governor of New Zealand

SNELL's BEACH is a small town about an hour north of Auckland Region in the North Island of New Zealand. It is situated on the eastern coast of the Mahurangi Peninsula and its namesake beach faces east across Kawau Bay to Kawau Island. The nearest town is Warkworth, 8 km to the east

The Island was originally purchased from the Maori by J. Taylor in 1837

thanks ngairedith