The Tornado that circles round the liquor question: New Zealand anti-prohibition arguments and strategies c1890–c1930

Abstract

This article briefly examines a range of economic, moral, political, theological and other arguments against the introduction of prohibition in New Zealand c1890–c1930 and the individuals, organisations and strategies used in this campaign. As with other countries that witnessed a sustained campaign for prohibition, existing historiography has focused very largely on the anti-alcohol lobby and has tended to convey an impression that theirs was a necessary and justified response to contemporary circumstances. Yet as well as predictable opposition from the licensed trade, in New Zealand, there were also articulate critiques of prohibition from abstainers, academics, theologians and the business community. Perhaps, most prominent was William Salmond, ordained Presbyterian minister and Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy at the University of Otago, who published Prohibition a Blunder a trenchant, multi-dimensional critique of the “vicious moral coddling” of the New Zealand Alliance and its allies. If we are to accept the conventional wisdom that voluminous prohibitionist oratory and tracts influenced many to join the prohibitionist cause and help it achieve over 55% support against a 60% threshold at the 1911 general election, then it is only logical to conclude that the arguments and methods of anti-prohibitionists dissuaded many others. Moreover, as the vote for prohibition retreated after 1911, it is evident that many voters changed allegiance.