The front page of The Dominion Post as its masthead changes to The Post. Photo: Supplied
A prominent law historian has questioned just how much "baggage" the soon-to-be-former name of Wellington's biggest newspaper, The Dominion Post, really carries.
Owner Stuff announced last week the paper would soon be known simply as The Post - because - in editor Caitlin Cherry's words, New Zealand was "under no one's dominion".
"New Zealand's status as a dominion ended in 1945 when we joined the United Nations," Cherry - who only took on the job in February - said. "It's time for the word to go."
But is that really the case? And does it matter?
The Dominion Post was formed in 2022 when The Dominion merged with the older Evening Post.
The Dominion was named after the biggest event that happened the day its first edition was published, 26 September, 1907 - New Zealand being formally upgraded from a colony of the British Empire to a dominion.
But don't call that an upgrade in front of Grant Morris, a law historian from Victoria University of Wellington (which too is no stranger to attempted name changes).
"It's not actually that important," he told RNZ on Thursday.
Going from 'colony' to 'dominion' simply acknowledged that New Zealand was already managing its own affairs, he said, and nothing actually changed on the ground. In a textbook he wrote on the New Zealand legal system, Morris said the word 'dominion' only appeared three times.
"Compare that to say something like the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 - which I'm sure very few of your listeners have heard of - that's mentioned 20 times."
He would not even rank the 'upgrade' to dominion status "anywhere near" his top five constitutional changes - which would definitely include the Treaty of Waitangi (1840), the Constitution Act (1852), the establishment of responsible self-government (1856) and the Statute of Westminster (1947), the latter of which "cut the apron strings, if you like, from Britain pretty much completely".
"A dominion was really a name that the self-governing colonies - so those are the colonies that had their own government that were elected and based on the on the British system like New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa - they wanted a bit of an upgrade and name upgrade from 'colony' with all its connotations, and so Britain agreed to that. And so 'dominion' became a name for the self-governing nations working in equal status with another country - which is, of course, Britain in this case.
"And you know, it really was a name change. Not a lot actually changed. When we think of, you know, those other countries and their major changes through, you know, US independence or Australian federation or things like that, dominion definitely doesn't rank up with that."
Grant Morris Photo: Supplied
A research paper from 2007 on the Parliament website notes the UK's Statute of Westminster Act of 1931 offered New Zealand legal independence, but it was not adopted until 1947's Statute of Westminster Adoption Act.
It was repealed in 1986, when Parliament completely removed any lingering powers the UK parliament had over New Zealand.
Stuff reported its CEO Sinead Boucher as saying the Dominion Post newsroom hated the word.
"That discussion was very much around: Do we really see ourselves as a dominion any more? Is that how we view ourselves as a country? Is that how the capital city would see its place in the world?"
Arguably, New Zealand still is a dominion. The word might have fallen out of common usage after we joined the United Nations at the end of World War II, but none of the legislation passed since 1907 revoked it.
"Now there's also the argument we became a realm in 1953, we got the Constitution Act in 1986," said Morris.
"People do argue that perhaps we, you know, still have that status… I think it most certainly isn't a big deal. I don't think very many New Zealanders, well hardly any, will have even thought about it.
"And even to be honest, a lot of constitutional theorists and legal historians have moved on as well."
Republican Movement chair Lewis Holden said - when news of the name change was reporter - he fully supported it.
"It's really a landmark decision by them (The Post) because of the course the dominion status is what came after being a colony, so it's yet another a step in the progression towards full independence."
