Silver Fern Flag

Sometimes the silver fern flag is shown next to the national flag (here in Wellington)

The silver fern flag ( english : Silver fern flag ) is sometimes called the unofficial flag of New Zealand considered. The Silberfarn is New Zealand's national plant, next to the term Kiwi (this refers Kiwis , the Kiwi and the New Zealanders themselves) one of the most important national symbols of the Pacific state and is the maple leaf in the Canadian compare society.

The silver fern itself serves as a single symbol or on flags of various institutions, clubs and organizations and is represented differently in each case. The plant appears in the coat of arms of New Zealand and appears together with the kiwi on the 1 dollar coin of New Zealand. In addition, many national sports clubs in the country use a silver fern, such as the Silver Ferns , New Zealand's national netball team , and the more popular All Blacks , New Zealand's national rugby union team . As part of the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow , the five participating New Zealand athletes ran under the silver fern flag.

The silver fern has been an official badge on almost all uniforms of the New Zealand armed forces since the South African War from 1899 to 1902. Around this time, the uniform predecessor wreath, which surrounded a certain coat of arms or emblem on the uniforms of the Dominion soldiers (until then the Union Wreath made of roses , thistles and clover leaves ) was replaced by country-specific wreaths: The respective national plants of the Dominions were replaced or colonies are used, i.e. maple for Canada , acacia for Australia , Protea for South Africa and a silver fern for New Zealand.

In recent years there have been repeated efforts to replace the current national flag of the country with a form of the silver fern flag. A supporter of a flag change was the former Minister of Culture of New Zealand, Marie Hasler , who campaigned for the silver fern flag in 1998. She was supported by then Prime Minister Jenny Shipley and the New Zealand Tourism Board . However, the project was not implemented until the new elections ( see : Flag of New Zealand ). A referendum planned for January 2005 on the introduction of the silver fern flag by the NZ Flag.com Trust was also unsuccessful due to insufficient participation of the population.

In March 2016, the people of New Zealand voted on the issue of introducing a new national flag. A referendum was held in December 2015 to clarify which alternative to voting against the current flag was available. In this, from a total of five proposals, the black, white and blue variant of a silver fern flag designed by Kyle Lockwood prevailed with a narrow lead over a red, white and blue one. In the referendum on March 24, 2016, the old flag prevailed against the silver fern flag proposal.

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  ^? The flag of the All Blacks

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  ^? red-white-blue design by Kyle Lockwood

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  ^? black, white and blue design by Kyle Lockwood

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  ^? Silver Fern Flag by Alofi Kanter

Individual evidence

1. ^ First Referendum on the New Zealand Flag - Final Results by Count Report. (No longer available online.) Electoral Commission, December 15, 2015, archived from the original on March 17, 2016 ; accessed on December 15, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2015/0008/latest/DLM6405461.html