Sutton in her research uncovered many interesting facts surrounding various liquor laws, political intrigue, prohibition and the reputation of female staff and publicans alike throughout the country.
Julia Eichardt, who transformed Eichardt's Hotel in Queenstown from a miners ''pub'' into a modern tourist hotel in the late 19th century, is just one of the many female publicans featured. She was obviously not one to suffer fools, keeping strict control of the bar and banishing drunks to a jail at the back known to patrons as the ''stone jug''.
Another would-be publican of note was Margaret Roche, who because she was ''a married woman'', was forced to transfer the licence of Dunedin's Gridiron Hotel into the name of her husband. Married women, you see, were not permitted by law to hold such a licence.
While a number may have had a fall from grace, there were many who gained the respect of the wider community, such as Katherine Daly, who when she left the Shamrock Hotel in Dunedin to get married, was presented with a engraved tea set as a measure of the esteem in which she was held, by both patrons and community alike.
This not just a book on ''pubs'', political interference, prohibition and reputations of the women behind the bars, it reflects the progression of 146 years of New Zealand society, complemented with period photographs, cartoons, newspaper cuttings and verse.
- Wayne Parsons is an ODT editorial and production assistant.
