Press

FLYING THE FLAG DEBATE

By Geoffrey Darling

What are the people who want to change the New Zealand flag trying to tell us?

That they can't tell the difference between our five pointed red stars, with white surrounds and a white seven- pointer Aussie version. Or is it something else?

Many believe our flag tells it like it is and how it has been in New Zealand, our islands' story. That's what flags do.

And before we start to change our flag we should examine why we have flags, how they evolved over time from rallying points in battle to symbols of nationhood.

Take the evolution of Great Britain's Union Jack; This symbolises the union of 1707 when Scotland joined England politically, adding the cross of St Andrew to the English Cross of St George that dates back to 1194 and Richard I; in 1801 the cross of St Patrick, red diagonal on white, was added and the United Kingdom flag was formed.

The New Zealand flag depicts largely British colonisation, and the Southern Cross, dominant in our night sky, tells the world we are in the South Pacific.

It flies free and recognisable to all those who wish to learn about flags of other nations.

Yet there is a movement for change of the flag, illustrated in Opunake High School year ten student Melany Gibb's winning essay that we have pleasure in publishing this week on page eight. Not because we necessarily agree, but because it's a winning essay and worth consideration.

She notes it is a movement that will succeed, whether we like it or not, one day.

That day will come when the amount of change in New Zealand can no longer be ignored and we are ready to make a bold statement.

The time may be closer than we think. Our legal bonds with Britain that lasted 160 plus years have gone, the old custom of endowing worthy citizens with knighthoods and other trappings of monarchy went a few years ago too.

Perhaps a new flag will coincide with a republic, and that date may be closer than we think.

We took a long time to break our legal bonds with Great Britain; we will take less time to break our depictorial ones.

So let's have a flag with class and let it reflect a new New Zealand, as the Union Jack reflected the joining of old enemies England, Scotland and Ireland (the last albeit temporarily).