New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

AUGUST 10 2019 LISTENER 45

June 1, 1960. The police said it would cause drunken rioting in the streets,
church leaders claimed it would undermine the moral fibre of the country,
but what actually happened when restaurants were licensed to serve wine
with meals on June 1, 1960, was the emergence of a new national pastime –
dining out. It wasn’t until 1971 that fried chicken, with the opening of the first
Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet, presented the first challenge to fish and chips.
Pizza Hut arrived in 1974, and McDonald’s opened in Porirua in 1976.

October 9, 1967. Six o’clock

pub closing was introduced

in 1917 as both a wartime

measure and a palliative to

the powerful temperance

movements. Liquor laws

had always been eccentric;

women and Māori were

sometimes not allowed in

hotels or to buy alcohol,

some districts had total pro-

hibition, Sundays were dry.

Alcohol could not be served

with food other than in hotels

until 1960. The swill, though,

was in a class of its own. As

the hour approached, men

packed pubs and lined up

jugs that had to be downed

in a furious rush by 6.15. It

populations steadily rose.

Auckland now has 1.6 million

people, a third of our popula-

tion and about the country’s

size in 1939! It took time for

New Zealanders to accept they

were largely city dwellers. In

the 1960s and 70s, people such

as author Barry Crump and

comedian John Clarke (“Fred

Dagg”) began treating our

rural mythology as a butt of

humour. Increasing numbers

of urban jobs required not

tough muscular strength

and “No 8 wire” ingenuity,

but specialised knowledge.

Lawyers, bankers, computer

specialists, social workers, civil

servants, teachers, architects

• all needed a formal educa-
  tion. In 1939, there were just
  over 5000 people attending
  New Zealand universities, and
  of those at school, four out of
  five were in primary school.
  In 2019, there are more than
  170,000 university students
  and about a million New
  Zealanders with a university

degree. Graduates were largely

trained for the city, and many

spent time overseas where

they learnt to enjoy different

foods and the entertainments

of London or Paris.

New Zealand developed

a rich urban culture – an

increase in ethnic and experi-

mental dining, a wealth of

Restaurant wine day

Six o’clock

closing ends

Peter Snell, athlete

of the century

ended in 1967, and was replaced by 10pm

closing. Few mourn the swill, although Bill

Manhire, in his essay “Under the influence”,

remembers “a kind of wonderful uproar, a

thundering, male exuberance”. The first super-

market opened in June 1958, in Ōtāhuhu,

Auckland, but it would take until 1989 for them

to be able to sell wine (beer followed in 1999).

October 19 6 4. Jack Lovelock and John

Walker both won the Olympic 1500m title,

the blue riband event in track and field.

But powerful Aucklander Peter Snell went

one better at Tokyo in 1964, when he out-

classed the 800m and 1500m fields to win

two golds. All up, Snell, described by Time

magazine as “a Sherman tank in over-

drive”, won three Olympic gold medals

and set world records from 880 yards to

the mile. No wonder he was named New

Zealand Athlete of the Century.

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