Dominion Gives Way To "Realm"
In 1946 Prime Minister Peter Fraser instructed Government departments not to use the term 'Dominion' any longer. It was not until 1953, however, that the term 'Dominion' began to be replaced. There is a view that dominion status was replaced by realm status in the Queen's Accession Proclamation of 11 February 1952:
| “ | The High and Mighty Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary is now, by the death of our late Sovereign of happy memory, become Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the grace of God, Queen of this realm and of all her other realms and territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith ... | ” |
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—Accession Proclamation (1952) I New Zealand Gazette 1952 |
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In 1953 Her Majesty proclaimed a separate Royal Title for use in New Zealand
| “ | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Her Other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. | ” |
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— Royal Titles Act 1953 (NZ), s 2; Royal Titles Proclamation (1953) II New Zealand Gazette 851 |
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However there was no proclamation that the official status of New Zealand had been changed from Dominion of New Zealand. Furthermore the proclamation of 1907 was not revoked or amended. The term Dominion gradually fell into disuse after 1953, and has been rarely used since the 1970s. Since then the term "Realm" has been increasingly used for New Zealand.
Today the Realm of New Zealand comprises New Zealand, Tokelau and the Ross Dependency, and the self-governing states of the Cook Islands and Niue. Former Dominions of the British Empire that have the British Monarch as their Head of State (including Canada and Australia) are known as Commonwealth realms.
Thus New Zealand is now an independent kingdom where the sovereign reigns no longer as the British Monarch, but as the Monarch of New Zealand.
| Administrative divisions of New Zealand | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth realm | Realm of New Zealand | ||||||||||
| States and dependencies | New Zealand | Ross Dependency | Tokelau | Cook Islands | Niue | ||||||
| Regions | 11 non-unitary regions | 5 unitary regions | Chatham Islands | Outlying islands outside any regional authority (the Kermadec Islands, Three Kings Islands, and Sub-Antarctic Islands) |
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| Territorial authorities | 13 cities and 53 districts | ||||||||||
| Notes | Some districts lie in more than one region | These combine the regional and the territorial authority levels in one | Special territorial authority | The outlying Solander Islands form part of the Southland Region | New Zealand's Antarctic territory | Non-self-governing territory of New Zealand | States in free association with New Zealand | ||||
Read more about this topic: Dominion Of New Zealand
Famous quotes containing the words dominion and/or realm:
“The kingdom of man over nature, which cometh not with observation,—a dominion such as now is beyond his dream of God,—he shall enter without more wonder than the blind man feels who is gradually restored to perfect sight.”
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“Nothing is beautiful, except man alone: all aesthetics rests upon this naïveté, which is its first truth. Let us immediately add the second: nothing is ugly except the degenerating man—and with this the realm of aesthetic judgment is circumscribed.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)