Last modified: 2005-01-29 by santiago dotor
Keywords: cook islands | new zealand | rarotonga | historical | stars: 3 (blue) | stars: 4 (red) | canton: union flag | disc (white) | palm tree | stars: 15 (yellow) | ensign: green | south pacific trading company | proposal |
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![[Cook Islands 1850-1888]](../images/c/ck-1850.gif)
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by Željko Heimer
Horizontal triband in red-white-red; in the white stripe three 5-pointed stars in dark blue (positions at 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 of the width). At this time the islands presumably were independent under the name of Rarotonga. I am not quite sure of the size of the stars, but one can argue if such things were fully standardized in the mid-19th century. Source: Hesmer 1992.
Harald Müller, 21 February 1996
"The ensign of Rarotonga, which flies over sundry islands in the Pacific, has a field consisting of three stripes, the upper and the lower red and the middle one white. Upon the white stripe are three five-pointed stars." The flag sounds authentic to me, as isn't the red-white-red flag of French Polynesia supposed to be based on an indigenous flag tradition?
Roy Stilling, 20 February 1996
I have found a reference to the flag of the South Pacific Trading Company (a New Zealand based company formed in the 1870s) which is the same as Josh [Fruhlinger?]'s GIF [?], with the addition of "S P" on the top red band and "T Co" on the lower one. My source (New Zealand Encyclopedia 1966) says the company's flag "...placed the initial letters of the company's name on the red panels of Queen Makea's (of Rarotonga) personal standard".
Stuart Park, 21 February 1996
![[Cook Islands 1888-1893]](../images/c/ck-1888.gif)
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by Željko Heimer
In 1888 a British protectorate had been established, the name presumably was still Rarotonga (no sources on that!). The Union Jack in the upper hoist corner is added to the 1850 flag. Note that, assuming the usual dimensions of the UJ (