1834 NZ's first flag chosen

The idea of a flag to represent New Zealand was first broached in 1830 when the Hokianga-built trading ship Sir George Murray was seized in Sydney by customs officials for sailing without a flag or register. Australia, New Zealand’s major trading market, was subject to British navigation laws that ruled that every ship must carry an official certificate detailing its construction, ownership and nationality. As New Zealand was not a British colony, New Zealand-built ships could not sail under a British flag or register. Without a flag, they and their valuable cargoes would continue to be seized.

In 1833 the newly arrived British Resident in the Bay of Islands, James Busby, wrote to the colonial secretary in New South Wales suggesting the adoption of a New Zealand flag. Busby saw a flag as both a solution to the problems with trans-Tasman trade and an encouragement to Māori chiefs to work together as an embryonic collective government.

On 20 March 1834, 25 chiefs from the Far North and their followers gathered at Waitangi to choose a flag to represent New Zealand. A number of missionaries, settlers and the commanders of 10 British and three American ships were also in attendance. Following an address by Busby, each chief was called forward in turn to select a flag, while the son of one of the chiefs recorded the votes.

The preferred design, a flag already used by the Church Missionary Society, received 12 votes, with the other two designs receiving 10 and three votes respectively. Busby declared the chosen flag the national flag of New Zealand and had it hoisted on a central flagpole to the accompaniment of a 21-gun salute from HMS Alligator.

Image: United Tribes flag