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Rosanoski considers N609 deliberate rather than a printing error because it is placed among red-and-white flags. He cannot determine whether Griffin’s black-and-white version represents N609 or N610.

The houseflag is white with a red St George’s cross and NZS Co in the quarters: N upper hoist, Z upper fly, S lower hoist and Co lower fly, with the o raised. Mertens describes blue sans-serif letters without a stop; LJC 1885 also omits the stop. The National Maritime Museum calls the letters black, which Rosanoski regards as erroneous; Brown and Loughran give blue. A red-white-blue vertically divided pennant flew above. Originally a ten-foot steam cornet indicating steam-assisted sail, it remained in use until August 1968. The buff funnel shade is confirmed by The Great :Liners Vol. 3.

Reported pennant proportions vary. Mertens describes one half the flag’s height, extending beyond it by about a fifth of the pennant’s own length; a New Zealand Line postcard shows about two-fifths the height and equal length. The museum specimen, dated about 1955–67, has a pennant of 711.2 × 2819.4 mm and flag of 889 × 1371.6 mm. The flag and pennant share a rope and toggle.

From 1 January 1966 NZS used Federal’s dark-red funnel as a common livery, retaining its own flag and, until August 1968, the pennant. Flags of the World 1961 omits N154’s pennant from the illustration but describes it in the text.

Five First World War prizes managed by NZS but owned by Federal used plain black funnels. Rosanoski suggests this may explain N611.