Story: Liquor laws

Petition on Sunday closing, 1856

In 1856 Weslyan minister Samuel Ironside of New Plymouth submitted a petition to the Taranaki Provincial Council requesting that pubs shut on Sundays – the ‘Lord’s Day’. This would ‘tend materially to lessen the evil of intemperance, and to promote the peace and good order of the community’. Ironside’s petition was not immediately successful, but Taranaki eventually did ban Sunday trading, along with most other provincial councils in the 1860s.

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Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga
Reference: TP5 4 12 1856/27

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How to cite this page:

Paul Christoffel, 'Liquor laws - Early liquor laws', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/zoomify/37606/petition-on-sunday-closing-1856 (accessed 10 June 2023)

Story by Paul Christoffel, published 5 Sep 2013, updated 15 Dec 2014