H.M.S. NEW ZEALAND

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 223, 8 June 1918, Page 9

H.M.S. NEW ZEALAND

LETTER FROM HER COMMANDER

Mr. Franklin Webb, of Levin, has reccived an interesting letter from his brother, Captain liicbard Webb, commander of tho battleship New Zealand, in which he mentions some matters that will be read with interest in tho Dominion, says the "Chronicle." Captain Webb says:"It may interest you to know that abont fifteen months ago a copy of tho old New Zealand Flag was presented to tho eliip by a Maori chief, Thomas Eustace Green, President of Tuahiwi, Kaiapoi, as tho result of a general gathering of the Maori branch of Nga Tabu residents of Ivaiapoi, with a request that it might be flown on holidays and other occasions. I have just written to Mr. Green to let him know that by special permission from the Admiral this flag was flown at the mast-head last Christmas Day. It is, as yon probably know, the flag which was chosen by the chiefs in IS3-1 and hoisted in the presence of the captain of H.M.S. Alligator and tho British resident at, I fancy, Wycndda River (?Waikato), and was saluted by the Alligator with 21 guns, By this ceremony New Zealand was recognised as an independent country, and this continued until by the Treaty of Waitangi, February 5, 1840, the sovereignty of New Zealand wa.s ceded by the chiefs to tho Crown of Great Britain.

"Your postcards look well in mv cabin. New Zealand must indeed bo what you all call it. God's Own Country, and I could havo asked for nothing better than to bring, this ship out there at the end of tho war. But thero is little ohanco of that now, I fear. Thanks to Russia's collapse, the end is not even in eight yet, and meanwhile I am travelling up tho captains' list so fast that I am Ixiund to be promoted—or retoed—liefore long, and then I shall very reluctantly have to hand tho command over to 6onieone_ else. But I am sure tho splendid spirit which now animates all aboard—officers and men alike—will continue as long as the 6hip does, and that New Zealanuers .will have every reason to be as proud of the vessel on her second Visit a3 they were when she first eamo out to you under Captain Halsey."