The flourishing of organ building in New Zealand from 1895 onwards is due as much to cultural developments in Europe and Britain as it is to economic changes here. By examining perceptions of music and the organ in nineteenth-century secular and religious sources, it is possible to demonstrate the influence of German transcendentalism and the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk on the demand for pipe organs in New Zealand churches (particularly in Protestant denominations), as part of a wider movement in Christian worship defined here as "aesthetic worship." The role of choirs, organists and others as facilitators in this movement is addressed, as are other cultural, historical, economic and technological contexts. Together, they assist in the construction of a new set of criteria for better understanding the organ of the period, and give a unique insight into the relationship of nineteenth-and early twentieth-century aesthetics and technology. In this thesis, the first to treat the subject, all 140 organs built in New Zealand between 1895 and 1930, and the lives of twenty of their builders, are substantially documented with specifications, transcriptions, and some photographs. The close reading of extensive primary sources available from religious and secular archives (from which the documentations are obtained) and substantial secondary sources, leads to a greater understanding of the cultural contexts of organ building than is otherwise possible.