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Story: Liquor laws

Brown Owl restaurant, 1944

Video file

In 1943 Invercargill voted to end 37 years of prohibition. In the wake of this a lobby group successfully campaigned for new liquor outlets to be owned by a community trust. Since 1944 the Invercargill Licensing Trust has had a monopoly on licensed establishments. This film clip shows one of the trust's early hospitality ventures, the Brown Owl.

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Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga

Reference: Weekly Review 163. National Film Unit, 1944

Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any re-use of this material.

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How to cite this page

Paul Christoffel, Liquor laws – The temperance influence, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/37657/brown-owl-restaurant-1944 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Paul Christoffel, published 27 March 2012, updated 1 December 2014.