Soldiers' votes defeat prohibition

A keenly contested referendum on 10 April initially gave prohibition a majority of 13,000 over continuance, raising the hopes of those who had for decades campaigned against the manufacture and sale of alcohol. This was to be the first – and last – time that the vexed question would be decided by a simple majority in a nationwide poll.

However the votes of nearly 40,000 troops overseas, aboard ships or in New Zealand camps were still to be counted. Fighting for King and country was clearly thirsty work – more than 32,000 of these men voted to retain the right to drink, overturning the interim result.

A second referendum held alongside the December 1919 general election included a third option, ‘state purchase and control’ of the sale of alcohol. This time prohibition came within 1600 votes of the combined totals for the other two options. Although the prohibitionist cause remained strong until the mid-1930s, New Zealand would never again come as near to banning the bottle as it did in the two referenda of 1919.

Image: Prohibition poster