NZHistory, New Zealand history online - temperance

The no-license debate in Masterton

Headline from the Evening Post 21 November 1914.

‘A successful experiment’ or ‘a farce’?

A stranger reading about Masterton under no-license could be forgiven some confusion about whether the town was prospering. Accounts of the town’s experiences without licenses diverged wildly. Local campaigner Jabez Bridges claimed in 1911 that:

Two happy, prosperous years have passed since the vote of the people took effect, and the shutters were put up on the licensed bar. During those two years our town has grown cleaner and our people more sober. Our homes too are happier and our children are better cared for since No-License came into operation, and all agree that ‘tis well ‘twas won.

A correspondent to Wellington’s Evening Post on 14 November 1914, who called themselves ‘New Zealander’, wrote:

To the face of all the evidence, no fair-minded person can claim that No-License in Masterton has benefited the people of that town. It has not progressed. Its population has not increased […] the morals and religious status of a population cannot be improved by such conditions […]. Masterton is, as a sample of No-License in operation, an example to be strenuously avoided.

In response, Charles Daniell wrote a week later:

As a resident of Masterton for thirty-five years, and carrying on a business paying more than £10,000 a year in wages, and as President of the Masterton Chamber of Commerce, I should be familiar with the conditions obtaining here.

There is no doubt that there are men in Masterton whose love of alcohol is strong; here, as elsewhere, these men strive to satisfy this craving. There are others, younger men, who because of the legal restrictions on the sale, revel in the excitement of blockade running. Then there are men who see in these conditions opportunity for making profit by trading on the weaknesses of one, or the fancied smartness of the other. These men are fairly well known, and their characters are such that no ordinary trader would trust them in the smallest business transaction. In order to check their operations, the police occasionally bring these "droppers" before the Court, when I fear that the natural love of fairplay, generally so admirable a characteristic of our legal administration, is so extended by our benevolent Magistrate as to give equal credence to the statements of the offenders as is given to the people's representatives, the police officers. The natural effect is to discourage the police and encourage the "droppers," who, in turn, laugh at the amiable Magistrate and sneer at a baffled policeman.

In spite of this, I submit that there is no reason to justify the statements you make in the article published by arrangement. I have, during the past few months, visited most of the towns of this island, and in none did I see conditions superior (few as good) as obtain in Masterton today.

Taking your summary in order, allow me to say that Masterton is to-day more prosperous than at any time in its history. As evidence take the response to the appeals for war and war relief funds. Has any community done better?

There is still an unsatisfied demand for houses; while as to the quality of the homes being built, we challenge any district in the Dominion. Let any doubter come and see.

You say we have not retained the native-born. It is true that we can point to successful youths and men throughout the Dominion and the Commonwealth, virile and manly youths, who claim Masterton as their "home".

You say many people desire to leave the district. Well, we in turn would be pleased to say "Good-Bye" to such. We want the companionship of workers, not the criminal described.

You say that we suffer social outrages. I agree that it is not a Paradise. We have mean and selfish men, but they find it more difficult than it once was to practise their arts. It is now possible for women to pass along our footpaths without annoyance; it was not always so.

I set out to protest against the unworthy slur you, an outsider, cast on a community that has dared to say that it does not and will not license certain men to trade on the acknowledged weakness of some of its citizens.

I ask you in fair play to publish this. - I am, etc.,

CHARLES E. DANIELL

Evening Post 21 Nov 1914 - see this on PapersPast.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: Eph-C-ALCOHOL-Prohibition-1911-01
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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Leonard Isitt

Prominent temperance leader Reverend Leonard Monk Isitt, 1911.

See links to more information on Isitt here.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: 1/1-014096-G
Photograph: S.P. Andrew Ltd
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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Prohibition vote 1911-87

This graph shows the changes in support for prohibition and continuance at the national referendums held from 1911 to 1987. Apart from the special April 1919 poll, all were held alongside general elections. No polls were held in 1931 (as a cost-saving measure during the Depression) or 1951 (because that year's snap election was held only two years after the 1949 poll). The licensing referendum was abolished in 1989.

The first poll, in 1911, saw prohibition achieve a clear majority – 55.8% of voters. But as the threshold was then set at 60%, it wasn't enough. The closest results were in the twin 1919 referendums, held in April and December, when the threshold was a bare majority; prohibition polled over 49% on each occasion. The December 1919 poll also saw the introduction of a third option – state control of the liquor industry. Support for state control peaked at 20.2% in 1946.

Credit:

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

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Prohibition vote by soldiers cartoon

In this 1919 cartoon from Truth a publican and a priest, both showing signs of having been in a fight, kneel in supplication at the feet of a soldier. This refers to the April 1919 prohibition vote being decided by the special votes of the 40,000 New Zealand soldiers still overseas, on troopships, or in camps and hospitals at the end of the First World War. Their decisive rejection of prohibition – by 32,000 votes to 8000 – stopped New Zealand from going 'dry' that year.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: A-313-3-029
Cartoonist: Thomas Glover
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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Band of Hope no-alcohol pledge card

The Band of Hope Temperance Society's abstinence pledge card from 1888.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: Eph-D-ALCOHOL-Temperance-1996-01
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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Anti-prohibition postcard

In this 1914 postcard, a cartoon of a member of the 'Prohibition Party' (Henry George Ell) looks down on the tiny figure of the NZ Voter; beside him is a pathway 'To Gloom' with an illicit still in the distance. Below are instructions urging voters to mark their ballot papers in favour of national and local continuance.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: PUBL-0220-7
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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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.

Credit:

Reference: Truth 30 September 1922. See this newspaper on PapersPast.

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Advertising on Churches cartoon

This cartoon from Truth illustrates the concern among some parishioners about churches being used to hang prohibition placards on.

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Reference: Truth 23 September 1922. See this newspaper on PapersPast.

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Pussyfoot Johnson cartoon

This cartoon from The Free Lance shows the contrasting reception United States temperance advocate ‘Pussyfoot’ Johnson received from Protestant church leaders and the liquor trade during his 1922 visit.

‘Pussyfoot’ Johnson visits New Zealand

Pussyfoot Johnson

William E. ‘Pussyfoot’ Johnson, one of the leading figures of the American temperance movement, toured New Zealand in the lead-up to the 1922 licensing poll.

Johnson (1862–1945) was a household name in the United States by the early 1920s, and the face of American Prohibition to the rest of the world. An ardent prohibitionist, in 1906 he was appointed a US Marshal to enforce liquor laws in Indian Territory and Oklahoma. His exploits cracking the illicit liquor trade were legendary, and his stealthy pursuit of bootleggers earned him the nicknames ‘Johnson of the Panther Tread’, ‘Johnson the Velvet-Shod’ and ‘Pussyfoot Johnson’. He was said to have arrested 5743 bootleggers by the time he resigned his federal post in 1911.

Johnson thereafter committed his energies to the Anti-Saloon League, the main national prohibition organisation, which helped ensure the United States Congress passed the 18th Amendment in 1919, famously turning the nation ‘dry’. The League was also committed to converting the rest of the world to prohibition, and Johnson was despatched to England to promote the cause. The loss of an eye when he was mobbed by students in London raised his profile even further.

After sailing into Wellington Harbour on 11 September 1922, Johnson spoke to businessmen at the YMCA at lunchtime and to a packed audience at the Wellington Town Hall that evening. He encouraged his listeners to vote for prohibition because it had improved America’s moral tone. Crime had dropped, charity was less necessary, violence towards children had decreased, and cruelty to animals had lessened: ‘even the cats and dogs are happier’. Johnson toured New Zealand for almost two months, speaking in small towns as well as main centres. The country still voted against prohibition on 6 December 1922, though by a narrow margin.

Credit:

Reference: The Free Lance, 13 September 1922. Cartoonist, T. Ellis.

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pussyfoot johnson

Pussyfoot Johnson

William Eugene 'Pussyfoot' Johnson, American Prohibition advocate and law enforcement officer, 1920. Read about Johnson's 1922 visit to New Zealand.

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Image source: Wikipedia

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pussyfoot johnson