2015–16 New Zealand flag referendums have markedly low attendance. The consideration panel noted strong online engagement with over 850,000 visits to the website and 1,180,000 engagements on social media. The panel reported that feedback found the themes of freedom, history, equality, respect and family to be the most significant to New Zealanders, however it was later revealed that those themes were dwarfed by the amount of feedback critical of the flag change process. From the submitted designs they found the most common colours were white, blue, red, black, and green. The most common elements incorporated into the flag designs were the Southern Cross, silver fern,
United Tribes of New Zealand to soldiers who served in the South African War (1899–1902). In July 2009 it was proposed as one of four possible designs for an official Māori flag at a series of hui around New Zealand. The flag is also occasionally encountered with black or white fimbriation and six-pointed stars. As stated in E.M.C. Barraclough's book "Flags of the World" (), The Shaw, Savill & Albion Line used this flag (though with white fimbriation instead of black and a proportions change from 1:2 to 3:5) as its company flag during its existence from 1882 to 1974. United Tribes of New Zealand