By LEIGHTON KEITH
26 January 2005
Not everybody agrees with New Plymouth Mayor Peter Tennent that New Zealand's flag needs to be changed.
Mr Tennent led the charge on New Plymouth's streets yesterday to support the launch of a national petition to force the Government to hold a referendum on the issue.
Around the country, former Governor General Dame Cath Tizard, world champion squash player Dame Susan Devoy and former All Blacks captain Graham Mourie all lent their weight to the campaign.
Not everyone the Taranaki Daily News spoke to was in favour of change, however.
Allan Davies, a farmer, said he thought the flag should stay as it is and believed the public would support the status quo.
"The New Zealand public doesn't want to change it," Mr Davies said.
World War II veteran Doug Proffit, of New Plymouth, said he thought it was a
good idea to let the public have its say.
Mr Proffit said if the design of the flag was to be changed, he would like to
see the Union Jack retained, "to keep in touch with the country's roots."
Lorretta McMahon, of New Plymouth, thought the flag did not need to be changed.
"What would they change it to? They could put a silver fern on it, but everything has a silver fern on it - it shouldn't be on the flag as well," Mrs McMahon said.
Nationally, the campaign hopes to collect 300,000 signatures by May 1, 2005.
Mr Tennent said he was not anti-royalist, but supported a new design for the flag that would better represent New Zealand as a country.
"I think that we can do better," said Mr Tennent, who also supported changing New Zealand's national anthem to God Defend New Zealand.
When New Zealanders travel overseas they don't have the New Zealand flag proudly displayed on their backpacks, he said.
"They have a kiwi or the silver fern," the mayor said.
He had no opinion on the design of the new flag.
"Let's have a look at it and see what the public has to say."
Local campaign co-ordinator Kristian Stevenson-Martin said a target of collecting 5244 signatures, or about 10% of people enrolled to vote in the region, had been set for Taranaki.
Mr Stevenson-Martin said he believed the petition would show that there was more support for changing the flag than was revealed by earlier polls.
Photographer John Crawford said he would like to see the flag's design changed to something that was more symbolic to New Zealanders.
"At the moment, our flag looks like a cross between Australia and Great Britain . . . we need something that is symbolic to us as a country and gives us more of an identity," Mr Crawford said.
New Plymout District Councillor Maurice Betts, a former New Zealand colts hockey representative, said it was important to get New Zealand's identity right.
"We are who we are," Mr Betts said.
Taranaki Daily News
© Fairfax New Zealand Limited 2005