New Zealand - Early proposals for a flag ( -1834)

(-1834)

Last modified: 2002-10-26 by sam lockton
Keywords: maori | stripes: 9 | new south wales | proposal | canton: union jack |
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James Busby, appointed in England to be British Resident in New Zealand, sailed from Sydney to the Bay of Islands, arriving on H.M.S. Imogene on the 9th May 1833. For several days he was extensively briefed by the missionary Rev. Henry Williams. It must have been on the basis of these conversations that Busby wrote to Sydney on May 13 that «From all I have been able to learn it appears that there are in the Northern part of this Island from twenty five to thirty Tribes of Natives who are in every respect independent of each other and who exercise separately ... all the functions of sovereignty.» Williams is also the likely source of Busby’s knowledge of Maori indignation over the seizure of the ship Sir George Murray in Sydney Harbour for sailing without a national flag. That, together with the representations made to him in Sydney by Grose, owner and builder of the ships Sir George Murray and The New Zealander, appear to have stimulated Busby to consider the long-term desirability of persuading the Chiefs to act collectively, and the shorter term goal of having them select a national flag, which would solve for Pakeha (white New Zealanders) what was in essence a Pakeha problem.
Stuart Park, 8 November 1996

Busby put the suggestion to Governor Bourke in Sydney, to whom he reported. New Zealand was not a British possession, but the Governor of New South Wales had jurisdiction over British activities in New Zealand. Bourke sent a suggested design for a flag, which arrived in the Bay of Islands in January 1834. The flag brought by Sadler was «four blue horizontal bars on a white field, with a Union Jack in the upper hoist». Because this design had no red in it, Henry Williams and Busby felt that the Maori would reject it, and even be insulted by the suggestion, since red was such an important colour for them.
Stuart Park, 8 November 1996