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Story: Antarctica and New Zealand

Adopting Ross Island, 1923

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Adopting Ross Island, 1923

New Zealand's 1923 acquisition of Ross Island as a dependency was lampooned in this cartoon. 'Ross Land', shown clutching a fish, is in the company of two toddlers, Cook Islands and Samoa (New Zealand's colonies in the Pacific). Attending the three youngsters is a nurse in the shape of New Zealand. The cartoon appeared in the New Zealand section of Aussie, a soldiers' magazine. New Zealand's Ross Dependency included most of the Ross Sea, Ross Island, the Ross Ice Shelf, the Transantarctic Mountains and part of the continent up to the South Pole. 

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: A-313-1-009

by Kenneth Alfred Evelyn Alexander

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Nigel Roberts, Antarctica and New Zealand – The Ross Dependency, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/cartoon/37197/adopting-ross-island-1923 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Nigel Roberts, published 12 June 2012.