Raratonga (Cook Islands)

Last modified: 1997-09-03 by giuseppe bottasini
Keywords: raratonga | oceania | blue ensign | cook islands | south pacific trading company |
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• Colonial badge of Raratonga

from "National Geographics" posted by josh fruhlinger 20-FEB-1996

"The ensign of Raratonga, which flies over sundry islands in the Pacific, has a field consisting of three stripes, the upper and the lower red and the middle one white. Upon the white stripe are three five-pointed stars."
The flag sounds authentic to me, as isn't the red-white-red flag of French Polynesia supposed to be based on an indigenous flag tradition?
roy stilling 20-FEB-1996

I have found a reference to the flag of the South Pacific Trading Company (a NZ based company formed in the 1870s) which is the same as Josh's gif, with the addition of S P on the top red band and T Co on the lower one. My source (1966 NZ Encyclopedia) says the company's flag:

..placed the initial letters of the company's name on the red panels of Queen Makea's (of Rarotonga) personal standard.

1850-1888: Uses horizontally red-white-red with 3 stars in blue (the one we
           have been talking about so far), at that time R. seems to have
           been an independent entity (?).
1888-1893: A British protectorate was estblished. To show this the Union 
           Jack was added as a canton to the flag.
1893-1901: The 3 stars were removed, i.e. the flag is now horizontally 
           red-white-red with the UJ in the canton. In the center of the UJ
           there is a white disk bearing a palm tree. 
           Maybe at that time the protectorate was renamed to Cook Islands.
           There are two (unissued) banknotes showing the flag in the name 
           of the "Government of the C.I.".
1901- :    The C.I. belong to New Zealand, and a distinctive flag was 
           introduced only in 1974.