The 1842 Licensing Act, New Zealand’s first, set laws for the sale of fermented and spirituous liquors, gave publicans responsibilities and regulated their hotels. Here’s Clause 23:
This provision remained law until well into the 20th Century although from 1898 the light did not have to be maintained if there was sufficient alternative (street) lighting. For some publicans it appears that the need for a light resulted in a statement about their hotel’s status, style and “establishment”. Here’s a sample of how they lit the hotels, by oil and gas until electricity arrived.
1896, the lamp outside the Vulcan Hotel, St Bathans, Otago – Alexander Turnbull Library
Lady under the lamp –
Shotover Hotel, Hokitika –
Tait Brothers, Digital NZ.
Arty. Frank’s Customhouse Hotel, Wanganui,
1880 – Harding, Alexander Turnbull Library
Nelson Hotel, the archway provided two hitching posts – Nelson Museum, Digital NZ
Oversize? Metropolitan Hotel,
Queen Street, Auckland, 1905 – N Z Graphic, Auckland Libraries
Avondale Hotel 1887 – J. T. Diamond, Auckland
Libraries
The light over the door of the Brian Boru Hotel in Thames in 1905 also lit the way to the fire bell – A. R. Carnie, Weekly News, Auckland Libraries
Elaborate. Kings Arms in Auckland. – Auckland Libraries
Fancy ironwork. The Fitzroy in Wakefield Street, Auckland,
– Auckland Libraries
Yes, the lamp has to be maintained. Castle Hill Hotel, Canterbury, 1887 – Preece
Publican’s Lamp not Alight. James Senior, of the Foresters’ Arms, Albert Street, Auckland, was fined 5 shillings and costs for not keeping his lamp alight on the 10th instant – “Daily Southern Cross”, 23rd November 1870, Papers Past, National Library of NZ.
Temporary premises after the Kohukohu Hotel burned down in 1900: a kerosene lamp provides the required light above the door! – C P Dawes, Auckland Libraries
In many of the pictures above can be seen the name of the licensee. This was to comply with another provison in the 1842 law: that the premises must have the name of the licensee, followed by the words “Licensed to Retail Liquors” painted on “some conspicuous part of the house” in legible letters not less that three inches (7.5cm) high.
RCC July 2026
