NZ's first flag chosen

A flag to represent New Zealand was first suggested in 1830, when the Hokianga-built trading ship Sir George Murray was seized in Sydney by customs officials for sailing without a flag or registration.

Australia, New Zealand’s major trading market, was subject to British navigation laws under which every ship had to 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 thought this would both solve the problems with trans-Tasman trade and encourage Māori chiefs to work together as an embryonic collective government. An initial design was rejected by the local Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries because it contained no chiefly red. Reverend Henry Williams then sent three alternative designs – including the flag flown on the CMS brig Active – to Sydney to be made up.

On 20 March 1834, about 25 chiefs from the Far North and their followers gathered at Waitangi to view the three flags. Missionaries, Pākehā settlers and the captains of 10 British and three American ships were also in attendance. Following an address by Busby, each chief was called forward in turn to choose a flag, while the son of one of them recorded the votes.

The preferred design – the CMS flag – incorporated the flag of the Anglican diocese of New South Wales into the Royal Navy’s white ensign. It apparently received 12 votes, with 10 and three for the other options. Busby declared it the national flag of New Zealand and had it hoisted on a central flagpole to the accompaniment of a 21-gun salute from the warship HMS Alligator.