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The no-license debate in Masterton
Letter in the Evening Post lays out the arguments for no-license legislation in Masterton.
Leonard Isitt
Prominent temperance leader Reverend Leonard Monk Isitt, 1911
Prohibition vote 1911-87
Graph showing the changing prohibition vote at national elections from 1911-1987.
Prohibition vote by soldiers cartoon
This 1919 cartoon  refers to the prohibition vote being decided by the New Zealand soldiers still overseas at the end of the First World War.
Band of Hope no-alcohol pledge card
The Blenheim Blue Ribbon Branch Band of Hope Temperance Society's abstinence pledge card from 1888.
Anti-prohibition postcard
1914 postcard showing NZ being destroyed by prohibitionists
Snaring a sly-grogger cartoon
This cartoon from Truth refers to the huge expense that would be incurred trying to track down illegal alcohol manufacturers in remoter areas of New Zealand.
Advertising on Churches cartoon
This cartoon from Truth illustrates the concern among some parishioners about churches being used to hang prohibition placards on.
Pussyfoot Johnson cartoon
Cartoon showing the contrasting reception by church and business leaders to visiting United States temperance advocate 'Pussyfoot' Johnson in 1922
Pussyfoot Johnson
William Eugene 'Pussyfoot' Johnson, American Prohibition advocate and law enforcement officer, 1920.
Abstain from alcohol pledge card
A Loyal Temperance Legion pledge card from the 1930s.
Rechabites poster from 1913
This Independent Order of Rachebites poster-calendar from 1913 includes portraits of temperance leaders W. A. Platt and W. Johnson.
Masterton no-license poster
Pro-temperance poster urging Masterton citizens to keep pubs closed in the 1911 vote.
NZ Alliance prohibition poster
This New Zealand Alliance for the Abolition of the Liquor Traffic poster from the 1920s urges voters to support the national prohibition of liquor. Although the twin 1919 referenda are often seen as the climax of the prohibition struggle in New Zealand, the issue remained hugely important into the 1920s. The prohibition cause fell only narrowly short of a majority in both 1922 and 1925.
Anti-alcohol cartoon from 1905
This Herbert Beecroft illustration from 1905 shows Zealandia holding the people's vote draining barrels of alcohol
Brewer rabbit cartoon
Trevor Lloyd cartoon showing a rabbit inside a beer barrel running into a 'continuance' hole, pursued by dogs representing the prohibitionist electorates
No alcohol license poster from 1911
This New Zealand Alliance poster was used in the prohibition campaign leading up to the national referendum in 1911.
Further information - temperance movement
This web feature was written by Tim Shoebridge and produced by the NZHistory.net.nz team. Links Hotels and motels (Te Ara) Read about prohibitionists L.M. Isitt and T.E. Taylor in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Books and other sources Conrad Bollinger, Grog's Own Country (Auckland, 1967) Paul Christoffel, ‘Prohibition and the Myth of 1919', New Zealand Journal of History, 42(2) October 2008, pp.154-175 James Cocker and J.
Masterton under no-license
The November 1908 licensing poll saw Masterton electorate introduce ‘no-license' and vote itself ‘dry’. Its 15 pubs closed on 1 July 1909, and remained closed until the town voted to restore liquor licenses in 1946.
The decline of prohibition
Alcohol remained an important issue after the war, and the prohibitionists slogged it out with the liquor trade throughout the 1920s.

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