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Henry Fish
An able but controversial politician, Henry Smith Fish is best remembered for his aggressive attempts to prevent women getting the vote.
Henry Fish
An able but controversial politician, Henry Smith Fish is best remembered for his aggressive attempts to prevent women from getting the vote.
Harriet Morison
Dynamic and determined, Harriet Morison helped establish trade unions for female workers and was one of the leaders in the campaign to get votes for women.
Harriet Morison
Harriet Morison was secretary of the Dunedin Tailoresses' Union from 1891 to 1896
Universal male suffrage introduced
The Qualification of Electors Act extended the right to vote (or electoral franchise) to all European men aged over 21, regardless of whether they owned or rented property.
Election Day in Masterton, 1884
In the North Wairarapa electorate, election day 1884 attracted unusual attention.
Royal Commission on the Electoral System report
Cover of the 1986 Electoral Commission report.
About the suffrage petition
Information about the suffrage petition and searchable database
Women's suffrage petition
Search the women's suffrage petition.
Kate Sheppard
New Zealand was the first country in the world to grant women the vote. Kate Sheppard, leading light of the suffrage movement, was vindicated when 65% of New Zealand women took the chance to vote in their first general election.
1927 - key events
A selection of key New Zealand events from 1927
General Elections 1853-2011
Dates and turnout statistics for all New Zealand general elections
NZ Alliance prohibition poster
A New Zealand Alliance for the Abolition of the Liquor Traffic poster from the 1920s.
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.
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.
Voting for prohibition
The First World War period brought total or partial prohibition to several countries: New Zealand came within a whisker of joining them.
The no-license era - NZ temperance movement
The 'three-fifths majority' was a major hurdle for the temperance community, but they soon mobilised to campaign for people to vote for it.
Temperance movement
Temperance was one of the most divisive social issues in late-19th and early-20th century New Zealand. Social reformers who argued that alcohol fuelled poverty, ill health, crime and immorality nearly achieved national prohibition in a series of hotly contested referendums.
Women vote in first general election
New Zealand women went to the polls for the first time, just 10 weeks after the governor signed the Electoral Act 1893, making this country the first in the world to give all adult women the vote.

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