Kōrero: The New Zealanders

At the end of the 19th century there was a possibility that New Zealand would join the new Australian federation. Resistance to this proposal became a way in which New Zealanders began to distinguish themselves from their fellow colonials across the Tasman Sea. In this cartoon New Zealand, in the person of white-robed Zealandia, prefers to hold the hands of her Pacific neighbours rather than be lured into the clutches of the Australian ogre.