Drink and national efficiency: Re-appraising the early closing debate in New Zealand 1915-17

Abstract

On 1 December 1917 New Zealand adopted six o'clock closing of hotels for the duration of the war and six months beyond. In December 1918 this measure was made permanent and endured until October 1967. As with most New Zealand alcohol historiography, the limited consideration of the decision of 1917 has focused almost exclusively on the perspectives of opponents of the licensed trade and its customers. These forces emphasised the detrimental effects of alcohol on the quest for national efficiency during wartime and their ultimate triumph appears as logical and inevitable. Yet this interpretation masks a complex and dynamic debate throughout the war in which organised and articulate supporters of the trade challenged claims that drink was undermining the war effort and sought, with some justification, to portray the early closing campaign as merely an opportunist endeavour of the broader prohibition campaign.