Story: New Zealand identity

This poster from 1915 represents the United Kingdom as a lion surrounded by the young cubs of the British Empire. From 1850 until at least the early 1960s most New Zealanders thought of New Zealand as a 'British' country and a loyal member of the British Empire. It was only in the last decades of the 20th century that ideas of New Zealand as having a South Pacific identity very different from the United Kingdom became stronger.