Licensing Trust - History

History

The establishment of Licensing Trusts must be seen against the background of the early 1900s. Even in 1940 New Zealand was a young country, barely 100 years old when measured against the Treaty of Waitangi which is traditionally seen as the pivotal event establishing the modern nation. Much of the pioneering spirit or its aftermath remained.

In the early history of New Zealand, living conditions were often of hardship and deprivation. Hard drinking and the often consequential drunkenness can be seen as a reaction to the times. Abuses, which were common during the nineteenth century, inevitably brought increasing restrictions through legislation.

These abuses gave rise in the 1880s and 1890s to the prohibition movement.

In 1893 the Alcohol Liquor Sales Control Act was passed by Parliament. This gave the people of a particular district greater control over the granting and refusal of licences to sell alcohol. What resulted was that a number of areas voted for a prohibition on alcohol sales. Clutha was the first in 1894, Ashburton and Mataura followed in 1902, Invercargill, Oamaru, and Grey Lynn in 1905, and Bruce, Wellington South, Wellington suburbs, Masterton, Ohinemuri and Eden in 1908. 1911 saw the peak of the prohibition movement when it failed by only 20,000 votes to carry national prohibition. Thereafter the strength of the prohibition movement faded. But it was to be 40 years and more before those areas that voted dry carried restoration of liquor licensing.

Even though there was a desire to have alcohol available, there was wide spread concern that the abuses of the past were not resurrected. The birth of Licensing Trusts arose out of this conservative concern. But while the search for a better system arose from these concerns, there was also a genuine desire to find a better way.

The early 1940s were much dominated by the second world war but it was a time too of high ideals and much social experiment. Thus, there was a climate for trying something new.