Choosing a flag - Taming the frontier?

New Zealand's first flag

One matter the British Resident, James Busby, quickly turned his attention to was a flag to represent New Zealand. This 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 to represent the new nation, trading ships and their valuable cargoes would continue to be seized.

Busby wrote to the colonial secretary in New South Wales suggesting that a New Zealand flag be adopted. He saw a flag as a way of solving the problems with trans-Tasman trade and also encouraging Maori chiefs to work together, paving the way for some form of collective government.

To this end 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 3 American ships were also in attendance. Following Busby's address, 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 out of the 25 votes, with the other two designs receiving 10 and 3 votes respectively. Busby declared the chosen flag the national flag of New Zealand and had it hoisted on a central flagpole, accompanied by a 21-gun salute from HMS Alligator.

Following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840, the Union Jack replaced the Flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand as the official flag of New Zealand. William Hobson forcibly removed the United Tribes flag from the Bay of Islands, and had the New Zealand Company's version of the flag hauled down at Port Nicholson. Hone Heke believed that Maori should have the right to fly the United Tribes flag alongside the Union Jack, in recognition of their equal status with the government. Heke's rejection of the Union Jack as a symbol of British power over Maori was evidenced by his repeated felling of the flagstaff at Kororareka between 1844 and 1846. Tarawhaiti's act of hoisting the United Tribes flag on the island of Ruapuke in 1844 also illustrated how some Maori viewed this flag as a symbol of Maori independence.