What would it take for West Coasters to boycott their beloved beer? Greymouth hotel-keepers found out in 1947, when an organised attempt to raise the price of beer sparked one of the most effective consumer boycotts ever seen in New Zealand.
The pavlova - that frothy, baked confection of egg whites and sugar - has long been seen as an icon of New Zealand cuisine; its place of origin has been debated with Australians for just as long in one of the many instances of trans-Tasman rivalry.
In the late 1950s and through the 1960s coffee bars sprang up all over Wellington city, with names like La Scala, the Picasso, Sans Souci Coffee Shoppe, Tete a Tete, and the International Coffee Lounge run by Wellington celebrity Carmen.
Although Wellington's first restaurants opened in the nineteenth century, the mid 1930s saw the emergence of a different type of establishment, the milk bar, which in many ways was the forerunner to the modern cafe.
A menu from the French Maid Coffee House The interior of the French Maid Coffee House, 1940s By Nancy Swarbrick The rise of coffee houses in the 1940s, 50s and 60s was not a phenomenon confined to Wellington, or indeed to New Zealand.
In mid 1947
there were rumours that the price of beer was about to rise. It was a decision
that no publican wanted to take alone because customers might move to another
hotel where prices were lower.
Folk musicians at the Monde Marie coffee house by Wayne Taitoko Entertainment generally and music in particular have always been a part of the Wellington cafe scene.
After the
first week of the Greymouth beer boycott it became clear that the Licensed
Victuallers' Association (LVA), supported by the breweries, was not going to
yield.
To obtain physical fitness, it is of vital importance that the right mental attitude should accompany the food diet to enable the emotions, nerves and glands to co-operate with the healing processes of the body.
New Zealand in the 1940s and 1950s has been described as a drab and uniform place. From the late 1950s, however, a café culture was established throughout the country
Colour, beauty, exquisite artistry find joyous expression in the Art of Salad Making. The homemaker who serves salads so deliciously and artistically tempting that the family cannot resist is thereby blessing all with the glorious gift of health.
A number of Working Men's Clubs (WMCs) had been
established in major urban areas since the late 19th century, but there were
none on the West Coast. The beer boycott provided a catalyst for new debate.
For many years the scramble for refreshments at railway stations was one of the central rituals of New Zealand life. In 1946 the Refreshment Branch served more than nine million travellers.
An American soldier enjoys a milkshake with a New Zealand woman in Auckland's New Ritz Bar. The official caption reads 'Milk bars have sprung up all over the city to cater to American tastes.
