‘Protect anthem’ Be a

Press, 11 October 1988, Page 1

‘Protect anthem’ Be a

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

“Irreverent and obnoxious pop” is how the Returned Services’ Association regards some treatment of the New Zealand national anthem. The Dominion executive committee of the R.S.A. is “of the unanimous opinion that the dignity” of the national anthem, “God Defend New Zealand,” must be protected and preserved. The R.S.A. is “dismayed and concerned that the national anthem has been transformed from a traditional hymn to be treated with reverence to an irreverent and obnoxious pop tune.” The veterans’ organisation is astonished that the Internal Affairs Department had commissioned a pop arrangement without consultation or regard to public feeling.

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Dr Bassett, has been told this in a letter from the R.S.A. However, Dr Bassett said the Government did not hold the copyright to “God Defend New Zealand.”

The Government had acquired the copyright in 1940, New Zealand’s centennial year, to remove any restriction on use imposed by a privately owned copyright.

This did not extend beyond the statutory 50 years after the death of Thomas Bracken, who wrote the words, in 1898. He had assigned his copyright on the words to John Joseph Woods, the composer, who died in 1934. This meant copyright ended in 1984, Dr Bassett said.

The department had commissioned Alan Slater to score an arrangement of the national anthem to be played by the New Zealand Youth Jazz Orchestra at a Beehive reception on Waitangi Day, 1987. Mr Slater held copyright on his arrangement and the Government had no control over when or where this was played, the Minister said. Mr Alan Johnson, Dominion president of the R.S.A., said he was amazed and gravely concerned that the Government appeared to have no means of ensuring that the national anthem was never used in an undignified manner. The Government could surely legislate to at least preserve the dignity of what, irrespective of any legal considerations, was considered by most New Zealanders as their national anthem, he said.

There was also a general concern about the practice of using the name, Aotearoa, instead of the official title, New Zealand, and the rather cavalier attitude towards the national anthem did nothing to alleviate the concern of the R.S.A.