The end of the 'six o'clock swill'

Six p.m. closing for pubs was introduced as a ‘temporary’ wartime measure in December 1917. It was made permanent the following year, ushering in what became know as the ‘six o'clock swill’, as patrons tried to drink their fill before closing time.

Since the 1880s the campaign to prohibit the manufacture and sale of alcohol had developed into a powerful mass movement. Its supporters promoted sobriety as a ‘patriotic duty’ during wartime, and in 1915 and 1916 nearly 160,000 New Zealanders signed petitions calling for six o’clock closing. The government agreed to restrict opening hours with the intention of increasing the efficiency of the workforce.

The liquor trade offered little resistance when the new hours were made permanent in 1918. The previous year’s measure had ‘drawn some of the sting out of the wider Prohibition movement’, and early closing was preferable to a total ban. Prohibition was only narrowly defeated in a referendum held in April 1919 and again at the general election in December 1919. The cause continued to be strongly supported at the polls throughout the 1920s.

Six o’clock closing became a part of the New Zealand way of life. In the short period between the end of the working day and closing time at the pub, men crowded together to drink as much beer as they could before bar service ended and the ‘supping-up’ time of 15 minutes was announced.

The measure was decisively endorsed in a referendum in 1949. By then, pub owners were concerned that later opening hours would bring increased costs such as the need to pay staff overtime.

A mood for change began to emerge in the 1960s. The growing restaurant industry questioned laws that made it difficult to sell alcohol with meals. People socialising at the local sports club or RSA also sought a change to opening hours. As the number of incoming tourists increased with the advent of jet air travel, six o’clock closing came to be seen as an outdated concept. In 1966 the Licensing Control Commission stated that uniform hours of sale were ‘neither equitable, enforceable, nor in the public interest’. 

When another national referendum was held in late September 1967, nearly 64% of voters supported a return to 10 o’clock closing. The government immediately acknowledged the result and the new hours were introduced on 9 October.

Six o’clock closing has been seen by many commentators as teaching generations of Kiwi men to drink as fast as possible, reinforcing a culture of binge-drinking. While early closing was promoted as a way to ensure that men got home to their families at a respectable hour, critics questioned the state they were in when they arrived.

Image: Porirua Tavern, 1967