Flag of New Zealand

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The Flag of New Zealand is a defaced blue ensign with the Union Flag in the canton, and four red stars with white borders to the right. The stars represent the constellation of Crux, the Southern Cross, as seen from New Zealand.

The flag proportion is 2:1 and the colours are Red (Pantone 186), Blue (Pantone 280) and White. Proportion and colours are identical to the Union Flag.

Ships of the Royal New Zealand Navy wear this flag while at port as a jack (worn on the jackstaff), not an ensign (worn at the stern).

Contents

1 History
2 Legislation
3 Flag debate

3.1 Arguments for change
3.2 Arguments against change
3.3 Proposed alternative designs

4 Other flags
5 See also
6 External links

History

The first flag of New Zealand based on the blue ensign

The first flag of New Zealand was adopted in 1834 by a meeting of Māori chiefs, who later made the Declaration of Independence of New Zealand, at Waitangi. This flag became known as the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand, and was an adoption of the St. George's Cross. The flag was selected due to a number of New Zealand built ships being impounded in Sydney for not flying a national flag. The flag is still flown on the flag pole at Waitangi.

After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the British Union Flag was used, although the former United Tribes flag was still used by a number of ships from New Zealand.

The first flag of New Zealand to be based on the blue ensign was introduced in 1867 following the Colonial Navy Defence Act 1865, which required all ships owned by colonial governments fly the defaced Royal Navy blue ensign with the Colonial badge. New Zealand did not have a Colonial badge, or indeed a Coat of Arms of its own at this stage, and so the letters "NZ" were simply added to the blue ensign.

The current flag was introduced in 1869. It was initially used only on government ships, but was adopted as the de facto national flag in a surge of patriotism arising from the Second Boer War. To end confusion between various designs of the flag, it became the legal national flag when the New Zealand Ensign and Code Signals Bill was approved by King Edward VII on 24 March, 1902. The British Union Flag was the previous official New Zealand flag following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Prior to 1840 the Flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand was the official New Zealand flag. It featured two crosses of St George and four stars in the top left.

Legislation

The national flag is officially defined in the Flags, Emblems, and Names Protection Act 1981 section 5(2) to be "the symbol of the Realm, Government, and people of New Zealand." [link]

Flag debate

For several years a number of people have been proposing designs for an alternative flag for New Zealand. In 1998 National Prime Minister Jenny Shipley backed Cultural Affairs Minister Marie Hasler's call for the flag to be changed. Shipley, along with the New Zealand Tourism Board, backed the quasi-national emblem of the Silver Fern on a black background as a possible alternative flag, along the lines of the Canadian Maple Leaf Flag. The NZ Flag.com Trust was founded in 2003 with the aim of bringing about a non-binding referendum on the subject. Under New Zealand law, a referendum may be held on any issue if 10% of electors sign a petition which is presented to Parliament.

In response to the petition, the New Zealand Flag Institute was founded to oppose the referendum campaign and promote the current flag, as well as to offer a more scholarly view of the Flag. Surprisingly, the Royal New Zealand Returned Services' Association (the RSA), the New Zealand orgainisation for war veterans, did not openly back the current flag at its annual conference, calling instead for "...politics to be kept out of the debate". This attitude was however criticised by individual branches of the RSA, who support the current flag.

The petition failed to attract enough signatures in time for the 2005 general election in September and was withdrawn in July. The NZ Flag.com Trust cited public apathy to change as the main reason for withdrawing the petition. The New Zealand Flag Institute ascribed the failure of the campaign to public support for the New Zealand Flag.

A large national flag flies over Auckland International Airport.

Arguments for change

Proponents for change argue that the current flag:

is very similar to the Australian flag and is often confused;
is a defaced Blue Ensign, the New Zealand flag alludes to New Zealand being a colony or sub-part of the United Kingdom;
ignores New Zealand's Māori heritage;
does not evoke emotional feelings and is rarely flown by New Zealanders;
has little connection with the land.

Many also object to the presence of the Union Flag (also known as Union Jack) on the flag as being overly colonial, for which it has been mistaken by various parties.

Arguments against change

Opponents to change argue that the current flag:

was chosen by New Zealanders;
does evoke emotional response in them;
represents the history of the country as a part of the British Empire and location in the southern hemisphere;
is a colourful design;
is the flag New Zealanders have fought and died for, and changing it would be greatly offensive to New Zealand's war veterans;
has represented the country for over 104 years.

Some also claim that it is not as similar to the Australian flag as is often suggested, and that many countries have flags that are very similar — or even identical — to the flags of other countries. They also criticise the proposed alternatives, saying they focus on Māori and Pacific designs when most of New Zealand's heritage is Anglo-Saxon and Celtic, or the Silver Fern which they say is the logo of some of New Zealand's sporting teams rather than the country itself.

Currently opinion polls indicate a majority in favour of retaining the present flag. There is no consensus among proponents of changing the flag as to which design should replace the flag, though this is not to say that there have been no well-known proposals for an alternative. However opinions as to the ideal alternative are varied, and proponents of changing the flag suggest they would rather leave the final decision on the future flag up to the New Zealand public.

Proposed alternative designs

Hundertwasser's flag

A flag with a long history as an alternative New Zealand flag is Friedensreich Hundertwasser's Koru Flag, designed in 1983. This flag represents an uncurling fern frond in a stylised form of a traditional Māori carving pattern, the koru. This flag, which is frequently seen around the country, has a great deal of support, especially among alternative lifestylers and similar more liberal groups.

Kyle Lockwood's flag

A popular alternative to the current defaced Blue Ensign was designed by Kyle Lockwood (left). It won a Wellington newspaper flag competition in July 2004 and appeared on New Zealand Television in 2005 after winning a poll which included the present national flag. The fern represents the people of New Zealand and the stars represent the location of New Zealand. The blue colour represents the ocean, the red represents the Māori and also sacrifices during wartime, and white is a reference to the "Land of the Long White Cloud" (translated from the Māori "Aotearoa").

James Dignan's flag

An earlier (2001) design which also gained a great deal of media publicity was that by James Dignan. This design was produced in newspapers around the country in 2002, at the time of the centenary of the current flag, and may have (at least unconsciously) been a trigger for Lockwood's design. This combines the red, white, and blue and Southern Cross of the current national flag (albeit a lighter blue) with the red, white, and black of the flag of Tino rangatiratanga, also incorporating the silver fern on black used to represent New Zealand in many overseas contexts. This combination both looked back to traditional links with the United Kingdom and also forward to New Zealand's current place as a Polynesian cultural centre.

Other flags

There is also a New Zealand red ensign which became the official flag for merchant vessels in 1901.[link] Previously a plain red ensign was used.

The red ensign may continue to be flown on land in Māori areas or during Māori events under the Flags, Emblems, and Names Protection Act 1981[link] in recognition of long held Māori preference for red flags. New Zealand law allows the defacement of the flag in accordance to Māori custom in which white capital letters identifying a particular family or Māori tribe are added. In the case of the flag on the left, TAKITIMU refers to a grouping of Māori tribes descended from the crew of the ancestral canoe of that name [link]. Note: This flag type serves as a guide to one concept for flags representing both the North and South Islands (see List of flags - Flags of New Zealand).

Today, private and merchant craft can choose to fly the Flag of New Zealand (i.e., the blue ensign) or the Southern Cross red ensign.

Since 1990, some Māori have been using the red ensign less in favour of a new flag which lacks colonial connotations. Chosen through a competition, the Māori flag uses black to represent Te Korekore or potential being, white to represent Te Ao Marama to represent the physical world, red to represent Te Whei Ao, the realm of coming into being and the Koru, a curl representing the unfolding of new life. To a number of European New Zealanders, this flag represents radical Māori nationalists.

Te Kooti's battle flag captured 1870 at Tapapa.

The Māori flags Te Paerangi and Te Paekinga of the Māori King Movement, and Te Kooti's more elaborate battle flag all carried a 'triple star' which some have suggested represented the three main islands of Aotearoa or Tane's three baskets of knowledge. One of New Zealand's two national anthems, 'God Defend New Zealand', includes the line 'Guard Pacific's triple star' and there has been various speculation over the years as to whether this was a reference to the three islands, or perhaps to the Māori battle flag - the anthem's author, Thomas Bracken, being something of an Irish anti-colonial.

External links

[Ministry of Culture and Heritage - New Zealand Flag]
[Maritime history of the flag]
[New Zealand Flag Institute Official website]
[NZ Flag.com Official website]
[New Zealand and the Māori flag]
[Other New Zealand flags] From Flags of the World
Proposals for a new flag [Jason Troup Proposal] [Kyle Lockwood Proposal]

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