Flag
The flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand was originally created in 1834. It features a St George's Cross throughout, with a canton featuring a smaller red cross on a blue background fimbriated in black, and with a white eight-pointed star in each quarter of the canton. When officially gazetted in New South Wales in 1835, some of these features were altered, to fit with more standard heraldic patterns - the fimbriation was made white, and the eight-pointed stars were changed to five-pointed stars. This altered version of the flag served as the de facto national flag of New Zealand from 1835 until the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in February 1840.
The earlier version of the flag, with black fimbriation and eight-pointed stars, is widely used today as a flag by Māori groups throughout New Zealand, who also refer to it as the He Whakaputanga flag. In July 2009 it was proposed as one of four possible designs for an official Māori flag at a series of hui around New Zealand. The flag is also occasionally encountered with black or white fimbriation and six-pointed stars.
Read more about this topic: United Tribes Of New Zealand
Famous quotes containing the word flag:
“What is Americanism? Every one has a different answer. Some people say it is never to submit to the dictation of a King. Others say Americanism is the pride of liberty and the defence of an insult to the flag with their gore. When some half-developed person tramples on that flag, we should be ready to pour out the blood of the nation, they say. But do we not sit in silence when that flag waves over living conditions which should be an insult to all patriotism?”
—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)
“Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;
Bravest of all in Frederick town,
She took up the flag the men hauled down;”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“There’s an enduring American compulsion to be on the side of the angels. Expediency alone has never been an adequate American reason for doing anything. When actions are judged, they go before the bar of God, where Mom and the Flag closely flank His presence.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)