Ask Phoebe: Ritual and rules over half-mast

Photo / Brett Phibbs

When a flag is being lowered as recognition of the death of someone of importance, where on the flagpole is "half mast" for the flag?

- Briar McKeown, Auckland

The flag is half-masted by first raising it to the top of the mast (the finial) and then immediately lowering it slowly to the half-mast position. The half-mast position will depend on the size of the flag and the length of the flagpole. The flag must be lowered to a position recognisably half-mast to avoid the appearance of a flag which has accidentally fallen away from the top of the pole. As a guide, the flag should be more than its own depth from the top of the flagpole. At the end of the day, the flag should be raised to the top of the flagpole before being fully lowered. In some countries half-masting is known as half-staffing. Some legends have it that a flag at half-mast allows room for an "invisible flag of death" above it. On Anzac Day, it is customary in New Zealand to lower the national flag to half-mast during any commemorative or memorial service. For more information about half-masting the flag, visit www.mch.govt.nz/nz-identity-heritage/flags/half-masting-new-zealand-flag.

A group of us walk our dogs at Onehunga Bay Reserve where there's a fence between the park and the motorway. The trouble is whoever built the fence left a gap at the bottom and from time to time smallish dogs get under it and it's hard to get them back. One dog was chasing a pukeko and his owner was able to squeeze under and convince the dog to come back. The transport people have put bits of netting in some places, but have never been back to finish the job even though they've been asked. It's only a matter of time before an accident happens.

- Diana Swarbrick, Onehunga.

The fence between the park and motorway was purposely built with a gap at the bottom. It cannot be fixed into the ground as it is in a water flow path. The gap enables water and debris to flow freely under the fence during flood situations. The Auckland Motorway Alliance (AMA) installed the mesh netting under the fence in low areas and has not been aware of any further issues. The netting will be extended for the remaining 250m to accommodate the water flow and prevent dogs from getting under the fence. AMA staff will also continue to monitor the fence regularly and repair it as necessary.

Why hasn't the NZ Transport Agency widened the narrow two-lane bridges on the Southern Motorway over the Mt Wellington Highway? These two bridges date from 1955 when the first section of motorway opened in Auckland and now cause congestion every day where three lanes of traffic have to merge into two. Common sense would be to have widened these two bridges to three lanes years ago.

- Isaac Broome, Pukekohe.

The narrowness at this point is deliberate, and works as a brake in the system. The Southeastern Motorway feeds a huge amount of traffic on to the Southern Motorway from both Onehunga and Pakuranga, and the narrowing to two lanes slows down northbound traffic and allows the traffic from the Southeastern to get in.