Tavern in the Town

This is a book that you hear about in NZ, however before I obtained a copy, I couldn't have told you what it was - fiction or non-fiction?

James McNeish was a journalist when he wrote this, his first book, in 1957. Tavern in the Town is an almost formless series of anecdotes about New Zealand pubs. Many - probably most - are now well gone, and even back then many had been rebuilt on the same site a number of times, fire being the most common issue with our historically timber framed and timber clad buildings.

While the book is extensively researched and often of some historical interest, for me the dated style left it fairly remote to me. Many of the anecdotes felt incomplete, and with several I had to re-read to make sure I hadn't missed the point, as it seemed like there was none. There seems a fair amount of speculation or perhaps old stories taken as truth, which seems risky considering the stories would have originated within these same inns and pubs with a high degree of lubrication - there was practically no acknowledgment of sources so that verification is difficult and reliability uncertain.

But of course a nationwide pub crawl provided the author with a holiday to remember - and this book is probably his record of time spent in the towns and is scattered with social history, local personalities and the attempts by prohibition movements, and to some degree a record of the architecture.

There was a quote which I can't track down which explored the origins of a temperance league - who, requiring somewhere to meet found that the only building with a space suitable was in fact a pub, so they hired the room for their meetings. I thought the irony of that amusing.

Pubs came first - before churches, before banks. They gave birth to live theatre, to libraries, Masonic lodges. The first post offices were founded in pubs. Our pioneer publicans ran grog shops and accommodation houses wherever they were needed, on every coast. They also smuggled firearms, ran brothels, feuded and fought. So pubs, inns and taverns shaped our history.

This was pretty hit and miss, and wasn't a book I can highly recommend for the casual reader. With a particular interest in social history, or an interest in a specific establishment perhaps (the taverns are mapped on the inside cover and referenced to the chapters, so not hard to track down) it would hold up better.

For me 2.5 stars, rounded up.