The present machinery for the control of the liquor trade outside licensing-trust districts is a mixture of central and local authority. The central body is the Licensing Control Commission. At a local level control is exercised through 22 licensing committees comprising a Magistrate as chairman and four members elected (except in the Chatham Islands) by the territorial local authorities. An appeal lies from the committees to the Supreme Court in some cases and to the Commission in all others, and from certain decisions of the Commission to the Supreme Court. The Commission decides what new licensed hotels, tourist houses, taverns, restaurants, and wholesale facilities are needed, fixes the standards to be complied with, and authorises the issue of the appropriate licence. In the case of a hotel or tavern, a poll of the residents of the locality may be demanded to decide whether the new licence is wanted. The Commission also grants charters to clubs authorising them to sell liquor to their members. A temporary but important function is to review all present licensed hotels and decide whether they should continue to be hotels or become taverns providing only drinking facilities. If it is decided that they are to be hotels they must provide the quantity and quality of accommodation required by the Commission. The Commission has a concurrent jurisdiction with the committees to prescribe and enforce standards. Committees grant licences to conduct business on premises licensed as hotels, tourist houses, and taverns and grant several minor licences – winemakers', wine resellers', ship, and booth licences. They renew and transfer licences.

Licences in force or authorised at 1 April 1965 included 1,102 hotel premises (including provisional hotel premises), 36 tourist-house premises, 38 restaurant, 169 wholesale, and 241 wine resellers' licences. There are four tavern and 13 (nine in Taranaki) tavern premises licences. At the same date there were 194 club charters, 72 of which (mostly older ones) authorise the sale of liquor for drinking off, as well as on, the premises.

The principles on which the liquor law of New Zealand rests are the necessity for anyone selling liquor to hold a licence, strict limitation of the number of licences (although there is no longer a fixed maximum), restriction of selling hours, and close regulation of the conduct of the trade and of the standard of accommodation, amenities, and services.