Today in History

1917 'Six o'clock swill' begins

Six p.m. closing of pubs was introduced as a 'temporary' wartime measure. It ushered in what became know as the 'six o'clock swill', as patrons aimed to get their fill before closing time. The practice lasted for the next 50 years.

Since the 1880s the campaign for the prohibition of alcohol had developed into a powerful mass movement. Supporters promoted sobriety as a ‘patriotic duty’ during wartime, and in 1915 and 1916 close to 160,000 New Zealanders signed petitions calling for six o'clock closing. The government agreed to restrict opening hours in order to increase efficiency in the wartime workforce. In 1918 six o'clock closing became permanent.

The liquor trade offered surprisingly little resistance. Its members felt that reduced hours of sale had ‘drawn some of the sting out of the wider Prohibition movement' and was preferable to a total ban. In a special referendum held in April 1919, and again at the general election in December 1919, national prohibition was only narrowly defeated. The cause continued to enjoy strong support 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, large numbers of men crowded together to drink as much beer as they could before the so-called ‘supping-up’ time of 15 minutes was announced. While early closing was promoted as a way of ensuring that men got home to their families at a respectable hour, critics questioned the condition in which most men returned. Concerns about binge drinking in New Zealand culture have been attributed to the fact that six o'clock closing taught two generations of Kiwi men to drink as fast as possible.

The measure was decisively endorsed in a referendum in 1949. The first signs of a change in attitude began to appear in the 1960s when the expanding 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 tourists to New Zealand increased following the arrival of jet air travel, six o'clock closing was increasingly seen as an outdated concept.

In 1966 the Licensing Control Commission stated that a uniform law for hours of sale in all places was ‘neither equitable, enforceable, nor in the public interest’. A second national referendum in September 1967 saw nearly 64% of voters support the adoption of ten o'clock closing.