Something Thoughtful

 Nicholas Reid reflects in essay form on general matters and ideas related to literature, history, popular culture and the arts, or just life in general. You are free to agree or disagree with him.  

                                           GOODBYE QUEENIE

I am writing this in the week when Queen Elizabeth II was buried with all due pomp and ceremony; so if you are the first to read this, you are reading it three or four weeks later. I have no negative thoughts about the late queen herself. She seems to have been a diligent, diplomatic and dutiful person. Even if she was married to a sometimes undiplomatic loud-mouth of a consort and even if some of her children did very questionable things (Randy Andy; three-in-a-bed Charles), she herself was a stabilising figure in a Britain that was gradually losing Great Power status. In such circumstances, Britain needed such a person to boost morale. She began as a glamour figure and ended up as the virtual grandmother to her nation, so I won’t say anything demeaning about her.

But thinking about the Queen always sets me thinking about the monarchy itself and especially its relationship to New Zealand. This isn’t a matter that keeps me awake at night. I’m basically indifferent to the monarchy per se. As it relates to New Zealand, I see it as a largely harmless, if redundant, institution. While Britons seem overwhelmingly in favour of retaining their monarchy as is (its performed pomp brings in a lot of tourist dollars after all), there is a growing sentiment in New Zealand that we should become a republic. In a recent BBC interview, Jacinda Ardern said that she expected to see New Zealand becoming a republic in her lifetime.  Contrary to some assumptions, this does not mean that New Zealand would necessarily leave the Commonwealth. Some members of the Commonwealth are already republics. For New Zealand, the issue concerns the absurdity of having as official head-of-state somebody not of this nation and from the other side of the world.

In many respects, New Zealand is already a republic. The British monarch has no influence at all over decisions made by New Zealand Governments and does not make policies regarding New Zealand. (And yes, I do know that the British monarch “reigns” but does not rule, even in Britain – but that does not alter my argument.) Honours bestowed on New Zealanders might still have British, and even royal, names (QSM, VC, OBE etc.) but it’s highly unlikely that His or Her Majesty has even heard of any of the recipients until a list of their names is devised by committees in New Zealand and then forwarded to some British bureaucrat to get officially endorsed. Our official head-of-state is no more than a figurehead and this head-of-state’s representative in New Zealand, the governor-general, has purely ceremonial duties. We are ruled not by the British monarch, but by the common law and decisions made by an elected unicameral parliament.

Speaking of governors-general, for many years they represented a strong link with Britain at a time when many New Zealanders were only two or three generations away from British forebears. There might even have been a few who still referred to Britain as “Home”. Up until 55 years ago, governors-general were sent here from Britain, always being some minor British aristocrat. But in 1967 the system changed when New Zealanders took over, nominating New Zealanders as governor-general. The new system signalled a weakening of identification with Britain. The first New Zealander to take the role was Arthur Porritt and for a number of years governors-general continued to be similarly starchy older men. There were some spectacular idiocies in the early years of New Zealand nominations. Making Keith Holyoake G.-G. was too partisan a choice, given that he had been the long-serving prime minister of a political party. Likewise making the erstwhile Anglican bishop  Paul Reeves G.-G. didn’t square with a country which, unlike Britain, has no “established” church (although some New Zealand Anglicans appear to nurture the delusion that it does). Since then, New Zealand governors-general have been a more diverse bunch, representing a more ethnically-diverse country. We have so far had an ethnically-Indian governor-general; Maori governors-general; and four women governors-general. Their purely ceremonial duties involve signing into law what has already been decided by parliament, bestowing honours which have been decided by a committee, reading some public announcements and visiting schools and other such institutions to make encouraging comments. I suppose there has to be some functionary to carry out these duties but frankly the governor-general does not loom large in the collective Kiwi psyche. Be honest, how many New Zealanders could even name the most recent governors-general without having to look them up? (Okay, I’ll put you out of your misery. There was Dame Patsy Reddy and now it’s Dame Cindy Kiro, and do you really care?)

Of course there is one major issue that could stand in the way of New Zealand’s becoming a republic. That is the fact that this country’s (very, very flawed) foundational document the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 by a representative of the Crown and many (but not all) Maori Rangatira. To this day, many Maori regard the document as a personal agreement between the Rangatira and the British monarch. The Treaty was ignored in New Zealand law for many years (being regarded as “a simple nullity” by one eminent jurist). But in the last fifty years, the treaty has been resurrected and legislation now often makes bows to the “principles” of the treaty. Politicians claim to be working in “the spirit of the treaty”. All of which cements in the idea that New Zealand is a bi-cultural country (Maori and [European] Pakeha) country, when demographically New Zealand is now very much a multi-cultural country (Maori, Pakeha, Chinese, Indian, Korean, Pasifika etc.). So will republicanisation be held up by Maori interest and the dwindling tribe of Pakeha who still identify with Mother England? Neither you nor I know. Possibly the way the new British monarch behaves will influence which way New Zealand goes.

Speaking of King Charles III, given that he is in his mid-70s, he will certainly not reign for as long as his mother did. In a way, his experience has been like that of Queen Victoria’s son, who waited and waited to become king as his mother continued to reign for nearly 64 years. While doodling away his time, Victoria’s son became a notorious philanderer, glutton and wastrel until, when he took the crown as King Edward VII, he was a fat and fairly useless old man who reigned for a mere 9 years. Charles has also waited for years and years – not that his habits have been the same as Edward’s – and he has had the foolish habit of making grandiose statements about such matters as architecture, or latching on to the likes of the fantasist Laurens van der Post as his guru. Time will judge how acceptable a monarch he is… and the less he says the better.

I can’t help closing with an anecdote about King Charlie which was told to me by an academic who, with other intellectuals, was invited on board the royal yacht when, in the late 1960s, it was making a visit to New Zealand. Being told of the academic’s profession, the then-Prince of Wales, who was of course still barely older than a teenager, immediately starting asking him what he thought of the theories of Marcuse. Recalling this to me, the academic rolled his eyes. To remind you, the German-American Herbert Marcuse’s writing and theories, now very passe, were at that time fashionable “campus favourites” among students who wanted to pass for intellectuals. To be quizzed about Marcuse immediately told the academic that he was talking to somebody immature even for his age. When I asked him what he thought of members of the royal family he had met, he said that Princess Anne seemed a very level-headed young woman and more mature that her brother. But Prince Charles he summed up with two words: “Bertie Wooster”.

            I do hope King Charlie has matured a bit since then.