Why does the New Zealand flag have red stars?
star...@starfern.co.nz
In 1865 the British Admiralty gave an instruction. Vessels in the
service of a colonial government must "wear the Blue Ensign with the
seal or badge of the colony in the fly". The Blue Ensign is a flag
with the Union Jack in the top left quarter and blue on the other
three quarters. But the New Zealand Governor, Sir George Grey, had a
decision to make. What should be the distinctive badge of New Zealand-
ness on the flag?
In January 1867 Grey announced the badge would be the letters "NZ in
red, … surrounded by a margin of white". This was temporary. On 23
October 1869 a new Governor, Sir George Bowen, proclaimed "a permanent
device … the distinctive badge of the colony ... shall be the Southern
Cross, as represented in the Blue Ensign by four five-pointed red
stars in the fly, with white borders to correspond to the colouring of
the Jack." Why red?
The first surprise is that the colour red for the NZ badge precedes
the use of the Southern Cross. So we don’t have red just to avoid
confusion with Australia’s flag, as some may suppose. Australia didn’t
even fly the Southern Cross until 1901, 32 years after New Zealand
did. The colonies Victoria and New South Wales did have a Southern
Cross on their flags, but again that was after New Zealand's flag. So
the red stars were not flag envy. Governor Grey could easily have
proclaimed white letters NZ, and Governor Bowen white stars. They
would have been much easier to sew than two-tone stars, and still have
had high visibility. So where did the red come from?
Let’s look a bit further back in history. In 1830 a New Zealand built
ship Sir George Murray was seized by Sydney Customs for not flying a
flag and not being registered by a government. So in 1833 James Busby,
the British Resident in the Bay of Islands, wrote to New South Wales
Governor Burke suggesting "the Maori chiefs should select a flag to be
recognised by British authorities as the national flag of the New
Zealand tribes". Burke sent back a suggested flag which had the Union
Jack in the top left corner, and blue and white stripes elsewhere to
represent New Zealand. Busby, and the Rev. Henry Williams who advised
him, rejected the design outright. They thought Maori might feel
insulted by the design, especially as it had "no red … a colour to
which the New Zealanders are particularly partial, and which they are
accustomed to consider as indicative of rank." Later Maori flags used
a lot of red as a mark of mana. Governor Grey was familiar with Maori
customs. Is this one reason for our red stars – as a symbol of mana?
Red stars or letters don’t show up well on a dark blue flag - unless
there is some white in between. Therefore the Governors ordered that
the letters and stars to be edged in white. In flag terms this is
called fimbrillation, and makes our stars unique among the flags of
the world. By happy coincidence it meant the New Zealand stars had the
red centre, white edges and blue background that made them echo the
Union Jack. Some British colonists may have seen this as representing
a hope for a south seas Better Britain. At any rate the choice seems
to be an inspired one, as it meant our stars had meaning to both
British and Maori cultures, reflecting both signatories of the Treaty
of Waitangi.
Was this bicultural symbolism just luck, or deliberate? We may never
know, but in hindsight it feels like the right choice. We have gained
colourful red and white stars on our flag, stars that are a unique New
Zealand icon.
To see some flags and other details on this subject, visit the
webpage
http://www.starfern.co.nz/index.php?pr=WhyStarsareRed
Gordon
> Why does the New Zealand flag have red stars?
>
Keith
blu...@penguin.myplace.com says...
> On 2008-03-22, star...@starfern.co.nz <star...@starfern.co.nz> wrote:
> > Why does the New Zealand flag have red stars?
> >
> Since when?
>
Since 1869 if you read the OP's blurb. Haven't you ever noticed?