1948: Extinguishing British Citizenship

August 29, 2019

By AHNZ

On September 6th, 1948, The British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act became law. Until this Act came into force, people born in New Zealand were British subjects but not New Zealand citizens for there was no such thing.

The change was a milestone in reducing the New Zealander’s freedom in the world. Once, as a British Subject, the Kiwi had trade and travel connections, and legal protections upon which ‘the sun never set’. Pax Britannia. This British Citizenship was the greatest single value Maoris gained by signing the Treaty of Waitangi…

“In consideration thereof Her Majesty the Queen of England extends to the Natives of New Zealand Her royal protection and imparts to them all the Rights and Privileges of British Subjects.”- Article 3

For now, at least, Kiwis remained British Subjects within this new subcategory of New Zealand Citizen. Of course it was just a slippery slope and by 1978 a new Citizenship Act wiped out reference to being “British subject and New Zealand citizen”, but instead only stated “New Zealand citizen.”

World War 2 had gone hard on the British Empire, we fell apart. The new coat of arms (above) from 1956 was part of that. So was the 1960 Wind of Change speech delivered by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to the South African Parliament.  Great open and honest old-school speech such as we don’t get these days. Makes a good argument about how “Empire is out, Commonwealth is in. Thanks for participating and see you at the Games!”

Winding down Britannia was a really big mistake, permitting ever-larger Statism. That may sound paradoxical coming from an Anarchist so think about it in terms of livestock. Would you rather be a free range human whose territory was most of the surface of this planet, or confined to a few little islands in the South Pacific?

Labour 1.0 passed the legislation but it’s true all our Commonwealth Cousins were doing the same as had been agreed. Shutting down Britannia was more in the nature of a mutual suicide pact. For decades, academics of the British Empire puzzled over the fall of Rome. How? Why? It was hard to figure out how a people, a civilisation, could crumble from within. These thinkers were hampered because they had not lived through such times, could not relate to a culture of anti-individuality and Ethnomasochism.

So now we’ve got all the perspective we ever needed to relate to the last Romans.

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Image ref. Harold Mac

Note: The speech was delivered by Macmillan on 3 February, 19601, to the Parliament of South Africa

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