The failure of political temperance: The politics of no-license in Broken Hill, 1883-1914

Abstract

In 1903 Broken Hill temperance worker Maria Braithwaite penned a short story full of pathos about a local drunkard named Gandy. Gandy lived with his orphaned niece Sue and nephew Pinch in a humpy at Dumpers Camp, was frequently unemployed, and squandered his spasmodic wages from the mines on drink, leading to his regular arrest for drunkenness. Gandy could not control his drinking for no matter how often he vowed 'never to touch another drop' he remained 'besotted' and his failure led his charges towards a life of poverty and wretchedness. With no money for medical treatment Sue became ill and died tragically, a furnace-like heat overcoming her body. Gandy knew it was his fault because of the demon drink and after hearing the hymn 'Are you coming home tonight?' took the abstinence pledge and became a great temperance man, an action which ensured his redemption, leaving him 'uplifted - purified - cleansed'.1 Temperance here was a personal moral struggle, fought for the individual soul, and drunkenness intrinsically connected to social problems more broadly. In contrast, a public speech given by Reverend C. E. Schafer, to a local meeting of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1909, embodied a starkly different view of temperance. He depicted the cause as a political struggle between 'the temperance party' and 'the liquor party' to 'carry no-license' at the polls 'so as to render it impossible for the liquor party to open houses again'.2 This was temperance as a political contest, fought at regular elections and aiming at prohibition of the legal sale of liquor.