Author(s): James McNeish

NZ Society | Secondhand

The history of our public houses is New Zealand social history at its most exuberant. As the author points out, our social history was baptised in alcohol. Pubs came first - before houses, before churches, before banks. They gave birth to live theatre, to libraries, militias, Masonic lodges, elections, even parliaments. The first Temperance Leagues were founded in pubs, also the first post offices. Our pioneer publicans ran grog shops on every coast, calico shanties in Northland and Westland, stone inns and coaching hostelries, ford, ferry and accommodation houses wherever they were needed. They also smuggled firearms, ran houses of ill fame, feuded and fought. As late as the 1930s there was a fight in a West Coast pub between a man and a bear.

The author travelled New Zealand twice from the backblocks of Northland to the Bluff stopping at the hotels of his choice, interviewing old identities and digging into newspaper files and library archives.

Ex-library.