Max Cryer: (Insert chosen deity here) defend our national anthem

All Blacks sing the national anthem, during Lions tour. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Opinion

Speaking to a crowd in Auckland shortly before the election, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said he was confident of winning Northland and he planned to put the national anthem to a referendum. His reason - nobody ever sang it in pubs.

Winston Peters might have to go a long way to find any national anthems being sung in pubs. He won't hear it happening in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Those places cannot sing their anthem in pubs because they do not have a national anthem - which is why the visiting Lions could not offer one to balance the NZ anthem. (God Save the Queen is the anthem of Great Britain and the Commonwealth but not of the individual divisions within.)

Americans can't sing their anthem in pubs, because its vocal range is 1½ octaves and needs a professional singer for any major events. Canada has revised its anthem words three times, but apart from genderism, some Canadians still shrink a bit at the words, "Oh Canada - we stand on guard for thee." And Greece's national anthem would need a patient pub crowd since it has 158 verses.

Canada's anthem originally said "thou dost in us command" then in 1913 changed it to "all thy sons command." But recent unrest indicated "sons" has to go. A similar problem faced Australia but "Australia's sons let us rejoice" was discreetly changed to to "Australians all let us rejoice."

In New Zealand, 70 different songs have been published claiming to be "New Zealand's National Anthem". Public acceptance settled on God Defend far above all the other contenders long before it actually became our anthem in 1977.

Winston Peters' stated intention to hold a referendum was not accompanied by any reason. But a recent correspondent to the Herald suggested we face the fact that the usually-sung first verse has reached its use-by date and the second verse is a better contemporary fit.

The words of verse 1 carry Catholic-born Thomas Bracken's assumption in 1876 that the Judeo-Christian concept of God was all-embracing and would remain so. This has not necessarily been the case.

There have been changes of attitude, polyglot Oriental, Continental and Asian immigration, and temples built for Sikhs, Hindus, Russian Orthodox, Muslims, and Baha'i. The 2013 Census showed more than 1.5 million NZers declared having no religion at all.

Plus the expectation that God will make our praises heard afar, rather than by our own efforts, could be seen as an instruction, rather than a plea to the omnipotent. And it's something of a stretch to picture God having feet.

The biggest stumbling block is "Guard Pacific's triple star". There are 13 theories about what this means but none of them has the slightest verification.

The result is people are now singing words which many feel make no sense at all. Verse 1 purports to be a statement of a nation's strength and qualities. But its level of understanding is questionable.

So what about singing Verse 2 instead:

Men of every creed and race, Gather here before thy face, Asking thee to bless this place, God defend our Freeland. From dissension, envy, hate, And corruption guard our state, Make our country good and great, God defend New Zealand.

"Men" would have to go but with a neutral replacement, problem solved.

John Joseph Woods' tune for New Zealand's anthem stands proud. Witness the jubilation in 1972 when it was first heard at the Olympic Games. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa once said "A New Zealander anywhere in the world instantly recognises the first four notes."

Perhaps Winston had a point ... if we dislodged the God with feet, and the dreaded 'triple-star' - but kept the tune.

• Max Cryer is author of Hear Our Voices We Entreat