Coming to terms with independence: Malcolm McKinnon notes the 75th anniversary of New Zealand's belated adoption of the Statute of Westminster.

• Author: McKinnon, Malcolm
• Position: ANNIVERSARY

New Zealand's Statute of Westminster Adoption Act gained the royal assent 75 years ago on 25 November 1947. It attracted little attention at the time, but on numerous occasions since has been identified as the date at which New Zealand became fully independent.

However, as the late W. David McIntyre demonstrated in 'Why We Don't Need a Fourth of July', it is unhistorical to attempt to identify a single date as New Zealand's 'independence' day--nor is it necessary. (1) The Statute of Westminster Adoption Act is but one part of the story. From most perspectives --political, diplomatic, constitutional--the substantive independence of New Zealand from Britain was accomplished between 1926 and 1941; that said, several elements that originated in New Zealand's colonial history persisted after 1947.

At the outset of the First World War in 1914, New Zealand was one of several British colonies whose self-governing status was recognised in their being collectively titled 'dominions'. That after the war this status became to all intents and purposes independence was a by-product of their immense contribution to Britain's war effort and their determination to help shape the post-war order. All the dominions participated in the Versailles peace conference in 1919. And all in 1920 became founding members of the League of Nations in their own right (as indeed did British-ruled India). Moreover, three dominions--Canada, South Africa and (since 1922) the Irish Free State--had significant nationalist populations.

The Balfour Declaration of 1926, a product of the Imperial Conference of that year, attempted to codify the situation. Care was needed. The three other dominions--Australia, New Zealand, and Newfoundland--lacked strong colonial nationalisms. Avoiding the word 'independent', the declaration nonetheless stressed that, while freely associated in the British Commonwealth of Nations, the dominions and Great Britain were 'autonomous Communities ... equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs'. The Balfour committee placed the declaration in historical context:

the tendency towards equality of status was both right and inevitable. Geographical and other conditions made this impossible of attainment by the way of federation. The only alternative was by the way of autonomy ... every self-governing member of the Empire is ... in fact, if not always in form. subject to no compulsion whatever...