This is a serious and urgent request of whomever is running the Government in the Prime Minister's absence. Please fly the proposed new flag from the Auckland Harbour Bridge, either on one pole alongside the existing flag, or on both poles.
We will be voting on them in just two months and it is vital to see the proposed alternative in action before we can decide.
Until we see how it looks fluttering in a breeze, lying limp and performing in various conditions, we cannot know whether its design really "works".
We also need to give it a test of time. A design that is striking at first sight, and even at subsequent sightings for a week or two, can lose its appeal later. A new national flag would need to hold our affection for a lifetime. We need to test it for as long as possible before we face the decision. That's why this request is urgent.
The Government has wasted no time sending out samples of the alternative flags to individuals and organisations that had two flagpoles and undertook to fly both of them as directed. But in Auckland at least, it has been hard to find them.
