He might have made the journey in stages like my ancestors who stayed in UK for 10 years before moving to final destinations
so it's worth looking at British census for 1840. 1850
What about his children do you have them on new Zealand censuses ? Could he have joined them in the 1880s
Could he have been Jewish?
That was era of pogroms .
Brigidmac… there are no NZ censuses available.
Newspaper & archive results posted above suggest an arrival in NZ pre 1840
That is very very early in the timeline of the colonisation of NZ. He likely came as crew on a whaling ship, a navy vessel from any country really, or similar.
He could have been Jewish, but he had ‘half-caste’ children so I doubt it was a concern of his.