The Demon Drink: Alcohol and Prohibition in New Zealand (bibliographical article)

University of Otago library (New Zealand)
Friends of the Hocken Collections
Bulletin No. 33 (July 2000)

"The Demon Drink: Alcohol and Prohibition in New Zealand"
by Ray Hargreaves and others

This is a remarkably rich source for historians.

ALCOHOL in New Zealand can be dated from
March 1773 when Cooks’ men brewed up a
concoction of beer using manuka in Fiordland.
The prohibition movement also has a long history. In
the 1830s the Bay of Islands had a reputation for wild
drinking, so it is no surprise that the first temperance
society was formed there in 1836. A broadsheet calling
the meeting, along with the Report of the Formation of
the New Zealand Temperance Society (Paihia, 1836) are
held by the Hocken.

This Bulletin covers brewing, hotels, the wine industry,
and the voluminous prohibition literature. When using
the computer catalogue be aware that some of the items
mentioned below cannot be sourced by both author and
title, so if the publication does not appear under one
heading, check the other. The Bulletin is restricted to
published books and periodicals. Lack of space precludes
the listing of every relevant item held by the Library.
Users are advised to use as wide a choice of subject
headings as possible when searching for further
references, and remember to check the holdings in
Pictures, Photographs and Archives.

G E N E R A L
An entertaining discussion of the role of alcohol in NZ
society from 1840 to 1915 is to be found in Stevan
Eldred-Grigg, Pleasures of the Flesh (Wellington, 1984),
while Jock Phillips provides a very readable history of
the role of drinking in the male culture of NZ in A
Man’s Country (rev. ed., Auckland, 1996). Conrad
Bollinger’s Grog’s Own Country (Wellington, 1959;
2nd ed. Auckland, 1967) provides a readable account of
the history of liquor licensing. Barrister Lowther Broad’s
The Law of Innkeepers, and Licensing Committees
Guide (Nelson, 1887) provided a guide to the laws affect-
ing publicans in the late 1880s, pointed out some diffi-
culties of administering the Licensing Act, and reprinted
the relevant statutes. A succinct but excellent coverage is
given in the chapter ‘Control of the Sale of Alcoholic
Liquors’ by Arthur P. Douglas in his The Dominion of
NZ (London, 1909). R.A. Loughnan, NZ at Home
(London, 1908) includes a general dispassionate discus-
sion of ‘Alcohol and Temperance’.

B R E W E R I E S A N D H O T E L S
Gordon McLauchlan’s The Story of Beer (Auckland,
1994) is a popular history of brewing in NZ, but the
volume is sponsored by Lion Breweries and, not un-
expectedly, the prohibition movement is not dealt with
dispassionately. Conrad Bollinger provides a potted his-
tory of NZ brewing in The True and Proper Drink,
published in NZ’s Heritage, Pt 51, 1972: 1423–1428.
For those interested in beer labels Richard Wolfe, Well
Made NZ (Auckland, 1987) includes many black and
white illustrations of registered trade marks.
Alfred Eccles’ An Account of the Brewing Trade of
Dunedin and Neighbourhood, Past and Present (Dunedin,
1949) was the forerunner of Frank Leckie’s Otago
Breweries Past and Present (Dunedin, 1997), a well-
researched account of breweries large and small which
operated at some time in Otago. Donald Gordon’s
Speight’s, The Story of Dunedin’s Historic Brewery
(Dunedin, 1993) is an exhaustive and well-illustrated
history of the company which dominated brewing in the
South for many decades. A century earlier the company
published The History of a Glass of Beer as Produced at
Speight & Co.’s City Brewery (Dunedin, 1893). Hosts
to the Nation — The First Fifty Years of NZ Breweries
(Auckland, 1973) looks at the formation and later history
of one of the country’s brewing giants.

Recent works on beer and brewing include R. Brimer
& A. Russell’s Microbreweries of NZ (Auckland, 1995);
Kerry Tyack, Guide to Breweries and Beer in NZ
(Auckland, 1998), and Carol Caldwell, Beers Brewed in
NZ (Christchurch, 1995). The latter is a brief listing by
breweries (national and boutique) of beers available.
R.W. Willett produced the first listing of Dunedin
pubs and publicans, but it is not completely reliable.
Frank Tod’s Pubs Galore (Dunedin, 1984) updated
Willett’s book, but repeats many of its errors and omis-
sions for the 19th century. Barmaids, Billiards, Nobblers
and Ratpits (Dunedin, 1992) by Ray Hargreaves gives
lists of pubs and publicans, along with an account of
pub life in Dunedin, for the period 1861–1865. A.J. de la
Mare provides a brief history of licensing law changes,
the prohibition movement, early Invercargill hotels, and
the city’s prohibition years in Drink or Drought
(Invercargill, 1981). James McNeish provides an enter-
taining mixture of history and yarns about pubs and
publicans, past and present, in Tavern in the Town (2nd
ed., Auckland, 1984). Now well out of date is Ian
Jenkin’s The Travellers’ Guide to Pubs of the North
Island, (Auckland, 1984) which both describes and as-
sesses, often frankly, the hotels and taverns included.

Kevin J. Fearon & Alexander S. Johnston’s Wairarapa
A
Hotels Past and Present: A Photographic Journey (Mas-
terton, 1998) contains minimal text. Inn the Beginning
(Whangarei, 1975) by Andrew Rae is a brief history of
some early Northland hotels, plus some excerpts from
The Law of Licensed Hotelkeepers in NZ compiled by
James Siddells in 1904. In Beer Slops. An Exposure of
the Liquor Trade (Auckland, 1946] J.A. Manderson was
not concerned with temperance, but rather attacked the
apparently common practice in some Auckland hotels in
selling wampo, from slops recycled into the beer kegs.
Pat Lawlor’s The Froth-Blower’s Manual (Welling-
ton, 1955) is an idiosyncratic but entertaining account of
his own beer-drinking experiences, a potted history of
beer in NZ and a beer encyclopedia. Lawlor’s Old
Wellington Hotels (Wellington, 1974) is a well-
illustrated account of the capital’s old watering holes.
Also of Wellington interest is Wholesale Wine and
Spirit Trade: a Wellington History (Wellington, 1966), a
short history of the 23 merchants in business at the
time. Fred Gebbie and Judy McGregor The Incredible 8-
Ounce Dream (Auckland, 1979), described as ‘a manual
for the boozer’, includes advice on such topics as how to
tell if your beer is flat, and even recipes using beer. On a
light note is Puborama (Auckland, 1961) by Ian MacKay
which is a collection of yarns and anecdotes, particularly
concerning country hotels.

History of the Invercargill Licensing Trust (Invercar-
gill, 1955) and Clive Lind, Pubs, Pints and People: 50
Years of the Invercargill Licensing Trust (Invercargill,
1994) tell the story of the community-run management
of licensed premises after years of being dry. An enter-
taining few pages of the no-licence era, including the
origin of the New Zealandism ‘kegging’, is told in
M.H. Holcroft, Old Invercargill (Dunedin, 1976). John
F. McArthur has written two books on licensing trusts,
Progress in Retrospect: A History of the Mataura
Licensing Trust from 1955 to 1965 (Gore, 1966), and
Licensing Trust Development in NZ (Gore, 1967).

V I N E Y A R D S A N D W I N E
Dalmatian-born Romeo Bragato, brought over by the NZ
Government from Victoria, offered the first detailed
Report on the Prospects of Viticulture in NZ, Together
with Instructions for Planting and Pruning. (Wellington,
1895). The author was impressed with the possibilities
of Central Otago. Bragato also wrote a detailed text on
grape culture, Viticulture in NZ (Wellington, 1906)
published by the NZ Government. A later history is
Dick Scott, Winemakers of NZ (Auckland, 1964).
Probably the best book on the subject is Michael
Cooper, The Wines and Vineyards of New Zealand. First
published in Auckland, 1984, it has gone through a
number of subsequent editions. Similar, but with less
detail, is James Halliday, Wine Atlas of Australia and
NZ (Auckland, 1991). Not all wineries are detailed and
‘atlas’ is a misnomer as maps are but a minor part of the
book. Richard Brimer’s Boutique Wineries of NZ
(Auckland, 1993) gives brief accounts of the smaller
wineries: Frank Thorpy, Wine in NZ (Auckland, 1983)
offers a general summary.

For the amateur vintner, T.W. Leys (ed) Brett’s
Colonists Guide (Auckland, 1881) still has useful advice
to offer. Beaven and Danny Schuster offer a starting
point for would-be sommeliers in Wine Care and Service
(Christchurch, 1985). D.W. Beaven Wines for Dining
(Christchurch, 1977) offers advice on quality, price,
value for money, etc.

S P I R I T S
Stuart Perry’s The NZ Whisky Book (Auckland, 1980)
provides a history of distilling in this country, much of
which was illegal.

P R O H I B I T I O N & T E M P E R A N C E
R.N. Adams’ The Origin and History of Good Templary
(Dunedin, 1876) looks at the movement’s origins and
history overseas as well as in NZ. J.A.D. Adams’ Early
Days of the No-License Movement (Dunedin, 1910) is a
history of the temperance movement up to 1892, with a
concentration on events in Otago, and the author’s own
part in it. Temperance and Prohibition in NZ (London,
1930), edited by J. Cocker & J. Malton Murray, provides
a sympathetic history of the movement along with a
who’s who of temperance workers. Anthony Grigg’s
1977 doctoral thesis ‘The Attack on the Citadels of
Liquordom’ examines the prohibition movement during
the years 1894–1914.

The arguments for and against prohibition spawned a
voluminous collection of pamphlets, particularly by
prohibition supporters. The No-License Handbook
(Auckland, 1908), edited by George Dash, is an encyclo-
pedia of short entries covering all topics providing am-
munition for opponents of the drink trade, from Drink
and Athletics, to Poverty and Drink, and even on choco-
lates that contained liqueurs. William Fox’s pro-temper-
ance speech in the House of Representatives was pub-
lished under the title The Permissive Bill (Wellington,
1872). The Rev. Peter Mason’s Intemperance: a Sermon
(Auckland, 1874) was a moderate statement. Three Sides
of the Question. The Medical, Political & Social
(Auckland, 1883) provided evidence of the evils of alco-
hol. Evidence Against Moderate Drinking (Dunedin,
1910) by M.A. & R.J. Rosanoff was a report of experi-
ments carried out in North America on mental and phys-
ical activities after ‘strictly moderate doses of alcoholic
liquors’. The pamphlet had originally been published in
an American periodical. George Bernard Nicholls pub-
lished in Dunedin, c.1910, a broadsheet titled A Message
to Christians arguing for prohibition, and including
statistics which showed how crime and accidents were
associated with drink.

William Salmond, Presbyterian Minister and Otago
University professor, wrote Prohibition a Blunder
(Dunedin, 1911), which went through five printings
from 24 February to 3 April 1911. Salmond was con-
cerned that the prohibition movement had become so
strong and vocal that its opponents were being cowered
into silence. He was immediately answered by A.S.
Adams in Professor Salmon’s Blunder: Prohibition an
Effective Social Reform, a Reply (Wellington, 1911)
and Arthur Atkinson, a lawyer, who described Salmon’s
arguments as ‘inaccurate, unscientific, and unscriptual’
in his pamphlet The Drink Traffic, a Blunder (Welling-
ton, 1911). Rev. Henry Jacobs’ Temperance: A Sermon
(Christchurch, 1864) argued that temperance ‘is a nec-
essary Christian virtue’. The Rev. T.J. Wills attacked
Dunedin’s Anglican Bishop’s view — that prohibition
enforced by the state was not morally defensible — in a
long book, Bishop Nevill’s Mistake (Christchurch,
1897). Rev. A.R. Fitchett’s opposition to a motion
before the Otago Anglican Synod which urged Church
people to vote for prohibition was reprinted as Dean
Fitchett’s Speech on the Religious Objection to
Prohibition (Dunedin, 1925). O.E. Burton wrote two
pamphlets supporting the prohibition campaign, Youth
Versus the Liquor Traffic (Auckland, 1925) and Labour
and the Abolition of the Liquor Traffic (Wellington,
1925), the latter being an examination of the advantages
for workers in adopting prohibition.

The Bible was quoted to support both opposing
viewpoints. For the prohibitionists Samuel Edger’s
Christ & the Wine Question Carefully Considered
(Auckland, 1871) is a sermon which considered whether
Christ made intoxicating wine from water. In Wines of
the Bible Wherein It Is Asked, and Answered — Does
the Bible Allow the Drinking of Fermented Wines?
(Christchurch, 1896) the conclusion of the anonymous
author was ‘No, it doesn’t’. But Christchurch rabbi
Adolph Chodowski earlier argued in Wine, its Use and
Abuse (Christchurch, 1893) that ‘the wines of the Bible
were fermented and intoxicating: that their presence was
looked upon as a blessing’ and only their abuse is con-
demned. John L. Allan, Prohibition and Christianity: A
Protest (Oamaru, 1897) was unhappy with the ‘vulgar
self-assertiveness’ of prohibitionists, and described the
movement as ‘anti-Christian’. George Bailey, The New
Heresy; or Scripture Teaching Regarding the Use and
Abuse of Intoxicating Liquors (Invercargill, 1897) sug-
gested that the ‘Doctrine of Prohibition, viewed from a
Bible standpoint is a HERESY.’

Selina J. Hancock, The Two Processions: a Dream of
Bye-Law 2 (Dunedin, 1894) gave her vision of two
worlds — the depressing one where the drink trade flour-
ished, and the happy procession when alcoholic drink had
been abolished. A.R. Atkinson, The Spoiling of the
Poor. An Appeal to the Moderate Drinker (Wellington,
1896) was an appeal for total prohibition. Alfred C.
Morton, who claimed that he was a ‘moderate drinker’
before writing The Liquor Traffic. Is It Beneficial to the
Individual? Is It Profitable to the State? (Wellington,
1905) said he had become a staunch abstainer after exam-
ining the social, economic, and political aspects of the
drink question.

University of Otago Professor Harry D. Bedford exam-
ined prohibition from an economic viewpoint, and con-
cluded that all countries would be better off without the
liquor trade. His view that ‘prohibition is patriotic’ was
expressed in ‘War and Shortage’ published posthumously
in A.B. Chappell, An Appreciation of the Late
H.D. Bedford... (Wellington, 1918). Also concerned with
the economic impact of the liquor trade is John
W. Jago’s The Economics of Drink (Dunedin, 1887),
reprinted as Will Prohibition Increase Taxation
(Dunedin, 1894). His brief pamphlet The Liquor Traffic
and the Revenue (Wellington, 1923) argues that the
economy has nothing to fear from prohibition. Arthur
Atkinson’s What About the Revenue (Wellington, 1911)
was largely reprinted, with updated statistics, as The
Revenue and the Liquor Traffic (Wellington, 1914)
offering a mass of statistics and opinions which con-
cluded that the way to a booming economy was to abol-
ish the liquor industry.

Albert J. Orchard and J.P. Whetter warned their readers
that alcohol is a poison which affects the working of the
brain in NZ Doctors on Alcohol (Wellington, 1911).
The Amber Light: Caution (Christchurch, 1979?) is an
amateurish publication pushing prohibition, with
recipes.

William W. Collins supported temperance but not
total prohibition, as witness his two pamphlets
Prohibition: A Plea for Liberty (Christchurch, 1892) and
An Address on the Injustice of Prohibition (Dunedin,
1893). Collins was against enforcing prohibition by
law, believing it impossible to obtain morality by
legislation.

The role of the WCTU in the push for prohibition is
examined by Patricia Grimshaw in Women’s Suffrage in
NZ (Auckland, 1972). A history of the WCTU from
1885 to 1985, written by Jeanne Wood, is A Challenge
Not a Truce (Nelson, 1986?). Kenneth J. Manson When
the Wine is Red: the New Zealand Temperance Alliance
Centennial Review (Wellington, 1986) notes the
continuing fight against drink. Ethel Benjamin’s Letter-
books (1903–08); and records of various Dunedin
branches of WCTU, Dunedin Tent Independent Order of
Rechabites (1864–1976), and Dunedin Area Council of
the NZ Alliance (1921–59) are among temperance
archives held in the Hocken. The Good Templar Guide
for Quarter Ending May 1911 lists Dunedin IOGT
lodges, their meeting nights, forthcoming programmes
and officers.

In the 1920s there was some support for corporate
control (including some government investment) rather
than complete state control of the liquor industry.
Licensing Reform Proposals for Corporate Control
(Dunedin, 1924) is a broadsheet which supported the set-
ting up of an Otago branch of the NZ Licensing Reform
Assn, while F.W. Chatterton, Liquor Reform. Corporate
Control versus Prohibition (Rotorua, 1925) was against
the movement.

Several towns and areas went ‘dry’ for a number of
years. James Baird, Results of No-License in Inver-
cargill, 1906–1911 (Wellington, 1911) listed all the
good things that had happened to the city, including
photographs of newly-erected buildings, though he was
honest enough to admit that progress was not solely due
to prohibition. Two dissertations have examined the
same topic: ‘Doing Away With the Demon Drink:
Prohibition in Invercargill, 1893–1905’ by Alastair
Hercus (1987), and ‘The Thirty-Eight Year Drought:
Prohibition in Invercargill 1906–1963’, by Janette
Mollison (1988). Ex-Prohibitionist on Prohibition in
Clutha: A Failure (Dunedin, 1899) wrote that as much
liquor could be obtained in Clutha under No Licence as
previously, and that if figures for drunkenness were
omitted the statistics showed that other crime had in-
creased after Clutha went dry. W.H. Scotter’s Ashburton
(Ashburton, 1972) includes some pages on that town’s
experience.

The Success of Prohibition in the British Isles &
North America, Together with Some of the Effects of
the Licensing System as Seen in Dunedin (Dunedin,
1876) by ‘Prohibitionist’ included comments how local
institutions could do more to promote the temperance
cause. Henry J. Osborn, Does Prohibition Prohibit?
(London, 1889) and H. Gilbert Stringer, The Effects of
Prohibition in the Prohibited States of America
(Wellington, 1893), take opposing viewpoints as to the
success of prohibition in North America. Arthur
Atkinson, Prohibition Makes Good (Wellington, 1922)
refuted views expressed in a lecture by Rev. Wyndham
Heathcote that it had failed in North America.
The Law and the Liquor Traffic (Dunedin, 1870) is the
text of a lecture to a Dunedin audience by the
Rev. William Gillies, concentrating on data from Great
Britain rather than NZ. Rev. P.B. Fraser attacks the over-
turning on a technicality of the Bruce poll which gave a
majority to no-licence in his Judgment in Voiding the
Bruce Licensing Poll Freely Criticised (Milton, 1903).
John W. Jago writing as St Mungo, The Publicans’
Claim to be Compensated Under Local Option (Dunedin,
1879); Samuel Edger, Has the Publican any Claim to
Compensation for the Loss of His License under Local
Option? (Auckland, 1882); the anonymous The
Publicans Claim to be Compensated Under Local Option
(Dunedin, 1886); Joseph Malins, No Compensation!
(London, 188–) and William Fox in Compensation: A
Memorandum on the Question Whether It is Due to the
Publican on the Refusal to Renew His License
(Auckland, 1890) all gave reasons for their resounding
‘No’ to the question.

Songs and verses in support of the cause are to be
found in The NZ Temperance Songster and Band of Hope
Melodist (Dunedin, 1868); C.O. Davis Temperance
Songs, etc. in the Maori Language (Auckland, 1873);
and George Dash, Two Hundred Band of Hope
Recitations (4th ed. Timaru, 1948). Dash also produced
Te Pono: Temperance Dialogues in Prose and Rhyme
(Waimate, 1904). Five songs with reference to the tem-
perance question are included in Rona Bailey and Herbert
Roth, Shanties by the Way (Christchurch, 1967).
The liquor trade supported publications such as
E.F. Hiscocks’ Saints and Sinners? Concerning Some-
what the 1905 Elections (Wellington, 1905) — a collec-
tion of cartoons by Hiscocks plus anti-prohibition texts
and a plethora of advertisements. The National Council
of the Licensed Trade of NZ published In Defence of the
Licensed Trade (Wellington, 1917) which refuted claims
of prohibitionists and argued that no further restrictions
should be imposed on the trade. A further publication
sponsored by them was the 118-page The Case for
Continuance (Wellington, 1922) by John A. Harrison.
Whereas prohibitionists wrote very seriously, at least
one of their opponents took a light-hearted approach.
O’Grady’s Views on Prohibition: An Exposure of a
Quack Reform (Dunedin, 1911) by the pseudonymous
Timothy O’Grady includes five short papers mostly
written in an Irish manner with such titles as Tea-
Guzzlers and Millenium Mongers: or, The Prohibition
of Tea. In Pills for Prohibitionists, O’Grady provides
statistics and quotations against prohibition, including
some from medical men about the harm done to women
by their over-indulgence in tea!

‘Is It’ was the pseudonym of the author of Isitt and
His Prohibition Fad Proved Complete Failures (Kens-
ington, 1893) which attacked the prohibition movement
and Rev. Isitt for his exaggerations and abuse of those
involved in the drink trade. The life of a leading fighter
for prohibition, T.E. Taylor, is to be found in
N.F.H. Macleod, The Fighting Man (Christchurch,
1964).

P E R I O D I C A L S
The Illustrated Temperance Advocate which changed its
name after volume 1 to The Temperance Advocate (by
which it is listed in the Hocken computer) was a
Dunedin publication which attacked The Trade, took the
ODT to task over any criticism it made of the prohibi-
tion movement, and reported on the activities of various
temperance groups. The Hocken holds volumes 1 to 3
(July 1873 to June 1876). A complete file of the prohi-
bition weekly The New Zealand Liberator, published in
Dunedin in 1876, is also held. The Prohibitionist and
Direct Veto Advocate, a Christchurch-based periodical, is
held from August 1895 to December 1904.

A complete file of the White Ribbon, journal of the
NZ WCTU, is held on microfilm. A useful aid is
Caroline Brooks and Gay Simpkin, A Bibliography of
Articles Published in the White Ribbon (Wellington,
1975).

T E M P E R A N C E N O V E L S
In the earliest temperance novels the story tends to be
less important than preaching about the evils of drink.
Later novels tend not to take a moral stand. The Hocken
holds the following novels dealing with alcohol or an
alcoholic character: Alexander Fraser, Raromi or the
Maori Chief’s Heir (London, 1888); G.M. Reed, The
Angel Isafrel; A Story of Prohibition in NZ (Auckland
1896); Kathleen Inglewood, Patmos (London, 1905);
Guy Thornton, The Wowser (London, 1916); Herman
Foston, At the Front (London, 1921); Prudence Cadey,
Broken Pattern (London, 1933); and Graham Billing,
The Slipway (New York, 1974 & 1994). John A. Lee in
For Mine is the Kingdom (Martinborough, 1975) attacks
the beer barons and reveals bribery and corruption
associated with politicians and unions in a story, ‘based
on fact’, of ‘Sir Ernest Booze’ — obviously Sir Ernest
Davis, one-time Mayor of Auckland and leader of The
Trade.

Prepared for the Friends of the Hocken Collections,
PO Box 6336 Dunedin, by Ray Hargreaves, with the
assistance of David McDonald. Edited by George
Griffiths; designed by Gary Blackman.