National colours of Canada red "in recognition of Canada's official colours". The proclamation accepts both colours for the maple leaves, stating ""three maple leaves conjoined on one stem proper"", in which "proper" refers to the natural colour of the leaves, which is green in spring and summer, and red in autumn. It was not until 1961, with the creation of The Queen's Personal Canadian Flag, that red and white became entrenched as the national colours. For the Federal Identity Program operated by the Treasury Board Secretariat of the Government of Canada, official and signage colours are specified in technical specification T-145. The red colour
Flag of the Natalia Republic occupied Pietermaritzburg two months later. The flag was probably discontinued at that time or shortly afterwards. After three years of military occupation, the United Kingdom formally annexed Natalia, as 'Natal', in May 1844. The flag, and its design, passed into obscurity. They returned to public notice only after the South African Archives acquired the papers of Professor Ulrich Lauts in 1925. Back in 1847, Lauts had published a book (in the Netherlands) in which he described the flag as being in the colours of the Dutch flag (i.e. red, white and blue) and in the same order. "The white, however,