Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand

**Women's Christian Temperance Union of New Zealand** (**WCTU NZ**) is a non-partisan, non-denominational, and non-profit organization that is the oldest continuously active national organisation of women in New Zealand. The national organization began in 1885 during the visit to New Zealand by Mary Greenleaf Clement Leavitt, the first world missionary for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The WCTU NZ was an early branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and a founding affiliate of the National Council of Women of New Zealand. Men may join the WCTU NZ as honorary members.

## You can't start a fire without a spark

Mary Leavitt was an educator and successful orator who became the first round-the-world missionary. Setting out on virtually non-stop worldwide tours over a decade, she "went to all continents save Antarctica," where she crusaded against alcohol and its evils including domestic violence; and advocated for women's suffrage and other equal rights such as higher education for women. She boarded the Pacific Mail Steamship Co.'s steamship S.S. Zealandia traveled from Honolulu to Australia with a stop at Auckland as a travelling envoy for the United States Women's Christian Temperance Union. She arrived in Zealandia with 29 passengers in steerage January 14 without much fanfare. By February 4, 1885, Leavitt presided over the founding of the Auckland branch of the WCTU. By the end of that year nine branches had been established in new Zealand. She founded the frist Women's Christian Temperance Union in New Zealand.

## National work

Movements to give women the vote began in New Zealand in the 1880s, notably with the establishment of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1886. Its establishment gave credence to this change, due to the fast-rising push for prohibition and a political alliance between the two movements, each of whom believed they could help each other achieve their goals. The WCTU worked for social reform on a broad front. Its members visited prisons, set up kindergartens and ran clubs for young mothers. In Dunedin, Leavitt House provided evening classes in cooking, sewing, carpentry and bible instruction and a club for boys. The WCTU has been seen as providing ‘a bridge between home and church, on the one hand, and social and political action … on the other’.

## Today

Although membership declined further, the Union still held annual conventions and sent representatives to the triennial conventions of the international body.

## References

**Citations**

1. ↑ Mary Greenleaf Clement Leavitt.
2. ↑ Tyrrell 2010, p. 85
3. ↑ "Departures". Evening Bulletin [Honolulu, Hawaii]. January 2, 1885. p. 3.
4. ↑ Dougherty 2013, p. 4
5. ↑ New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union.
6. ↑ Blocker 2003, p. 308
7. ↑ Burdon 1955, p. 109
8. ↑ WCTU History.
9. ↑ Tyrrell 1983, p. 285
10. ↑ New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union.

 **Bibliography**

*Not by author; sorted by publication name*

* Blocker, Jack (2003), "Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia", *ABC-CLIO; Illustrated edition*: pp. 758, , https://books.google.co.nz/books/about/Alcohol\_and\_Temperance\_in\_Modern\_History.html?id=BuzNzm-x0l8C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp\_read\_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks\_redir=0&redir\_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false, retrieved 8 June 2022

* Tyrrell, lan (1983), "International Aspects of the Women’s Temperance Movement in Australia: The Influence of the American WCTU, 1882-1914′, Journal of Religious History, Vol. 12", *Wiley-Blackwell*: pp. 40, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9809.1983.tb00751.x, retrieved 8 June 2022

* Burdon, Randall (1955), "King Dick: A Biography of Richard John Seddon", *Whitcombe & Tombs*: pp. 339, https://smithsbookshop.co.nz/p/nz-politics-social-history-king-dick-a-biography-of-richard-john-seddon, retrieved 15 May 2022

* Tyrrell, Lan (August 2010), "Woman's World/Woman's Empire The Woman's Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880-1930", *The University of North Carolina Press*: pp. 392, https://natlib-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?vid=NLNZ&docid=NLNZ\_ALMA21186459170002836&context=L&search\_scope=NLNZ, retrieved 15 May 2022

* Dougherty, Lan (2013), "Without Compromised: A Brief History of the New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union.", *Unlisted*: pp. 24, https://books.google.co.nz/books/about/Without\_Compromise.html?id=VlDwngEACAAJ&redir\_esc=y, retrieved 8 June 2022