New Zealand - Waitangi flag contest (1834)

(1834)

Last modified: 2002-10-26 by sam lockton
Keywords: maori | crosses: 2 | cross (red) | stars: 4 | waitangi | proposal | missionary | stars: 4 | star: 8 points (white) |
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• The originally chosen version
• Missionary influence?

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Busby wrote back to Bourke suggesting three alternative designs which had all been drawn by Williams, all of which incorporated red. Bourke had all three made up in Sydney and sent them back on H.M.S. Alligator, which arrived in the Bay of Islands on 9 March 1834. Busby sent the following account of the selection of the flag to Governor Bourke in New South Wales on March 26th 1834:

I accordingly lost no time in requesting the chiefs to assemble on Thursday the 20th current, and I also sent invitations to the respectable Settlers, and to the Commander of ten British and three American Ships then in the Harbour to witness the ceremony. These with the Officers of His Majesty’s Ship Alligator and a portion of the Missionaries formed a party of from fifty to sixty persons of respectability who were present on the occasion.

The Chiefs assembled to the number of 25 with a considerable bo