# 1916 New South Wales closing hour referendum

A referendum concerning the closing hour for licensed premises and registered clubs was put to voters on 10 June 1916. The referendum was conducted on the basis of optional preferential voting. Preferences were not counted as a majority voted for 6:00 pm closing time.

## Background

Six o'clock closing was introduced during the First World War, partly as an attempt to improve public morality and partly as a war austerity measure. Before this reform, most hotels and public houses in Australia had closed at 11 or 11:30 pm. Support for changing hotel closing times originally came from the temperance movement, which hoped that implementing restrictions on the sale of alcohol would lead eventually to its total prohibition. Although the movement had been active since the 1870s, it had been gaining ground since the 1900s following the introduction of 6 o'clock retail trade closing, first legislated in Western Australia in 1897. The argument made by the temperance movement challenged the grounds for public houses being "kept open while bakers' shops were shut". Prominent groups in this movement were the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Rechabites. Their agitation was augmented with the outbreak of war in 1914 where it was argued that a "well-ordered, self-disciplined and morally upright home front was a precondition for the successful prosecution of the war."
The first state to introduce early closing was South Australia in March 1916 where the rationale was for supporting the war effort. The law had been approved in the previous year in a referendum held in conjunction with the state election. Six o'clock closing was subsequently adopted in New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania in the same year. It was introduced in New Zealand in December 1917. Western Australia adopted a 9 pm closing time, but Queensland retained the old closing times until it introduced 8 o'clock closing in 1923.

## The question

The voting paper was:
   * Closing hour
   * Six o'clock
   * Seven o'clock
   * Eight o'clock
   * Nine o'clock
   * Ten o'clock
   * Eleven o'clock
   Indicate your vote by placing the figure 1 in the square opposite the closing hour for which you vote in the first instance, and as your first preference.
   You may, in addition, indicate in the order of your preference which of the other closing hours you prefer (in the event of the hour for which you first vote not getting a majority) by placing the figures 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or any of such figures, in the squares opposite the other closing hours, thereby indicating the order of your preference.
   It is not necessary to vote for more than one closing hour, but the hour for which you first vote must have against it the figure 1.
   The vote for any preference after the first will only be counted in the event of there not being a majority of votes in favour of any of your prior preferences.

## Results

The referendum was overwhelmingly in favour of 6:00 pm closing time.
Result :
| Question | Question | Votes | % |
| What should be the closing hour of licensed premises | 6:00 pm | 325,121 | 62.18 |
| What should be the closing hour of licensed premises | 7:00 pm | 5,068 | 0.97 |
| What should be the closing hour of licensed premises | 8:00 pm | 20,103 | 3.84 |
| What should be the closing hour of licensed premises | 9:00 pm | 168,162 | 32.16 |
| What should be the closing hour of licensed premises | 10:00 pm | 1,494 | 0.29 |
| What should be the closing hour of licensed premises | 11:00 pm | 2,933 | 0.56 |
| Total formal votes | Total formal votes | 522,881 | 95.93 |
| Informal votes | Informal votes | 22,208 | 4.07 |
| Turnout | Turnout | 545,089 | 52.51 |

## Aftermath

Although it was introduced as a temporary measure, the government brought in extensions and discussed putting the matter to a referendum. In 1923, however, without testing the matter by a popular vote, the Fuller Nationalist government enacted 6 pm as the closing time.
This was the first of three referendums concerning the closing hour for licensed premises and clubs.
Closing hour referendum results :
| Referendum | 6:00 pm | 7:00 pm | 8:00 pm | 9:00 pm | 10:00 pm | 11:00 pm |
| (2) 1916 Licensed premises closing hour | 62.18% | 0.97% | 3.84% | 32.16% | 0.29% | 0.56% |
| (5) 1947 Licensed premises and clubs closing hour | 62.44% | | | 1.60% | 35.96% | |
| (6) 1954 Licensed premises and clubs closing hour | 49.73% | | | | 50.27% | |