Young lives drown in culture of binge

Celia Schoonraad says barmaids inevitably deal with intoxication. Photo / Chris Skelton

Alcohol is sapping the national spirit.

The abuse of booze is costing the country a fortune. Good men - and women - are turned into immoral drunks by the demon drink.

Public concern over alcohol abuse forces the New Zealand government to act.

Women behind the bar are banned, barmaids are made illegal, in the hope that this will staunch the flow of traffic to pubs.

This was 1910. New Zealand's struggles with alcohol are nothing new.

The ban on new barmaids lasted for more than 50 years, according to Paul Christoffel, who has just completed a PhD thesis on the history of alcohol restrictions in New Zealand. The ban wasn't complete, he says.

There was a grandmothering clause that allowed women working in 1910 to keep their jobs pulling pints.

"So by the time the ban was lifted in 1961, the only women working behind the bar were elderly," he says.

What seemed a sensible idea in 1910 simply wouldn't work today, says Celia Schoonraad.

She works at Auckland's Cassette bar on Vulcan Lane and, though only 24, has been working as a barmaid for seven years.

"Don't ask," she says of her early start in the business.

Social changes since 1910 have turned bar-rooms into equal-opportunity drinking and courting rooms, says Schoonraad.

Banning barmaids wouldn't turn back the clock and stop the heady cocktail of sex and booze.

"Let's say you had five bartenders, all men, and all really good-looking - girls would flock there, and guys will follow girls," she says.

Intoxicated patrons are unavoidable, as are the come-ons from men. But, bartenders like Schoonraad are more than capable of aggression in their responses.

"You're probably asking the wrong woman if this is a problem - I've got no problem telling someone to go f*** themselves."

People will always find a way to drink. "People drink for all sorts of reasons. Some drink to unwind, others for Dutch courage, while some people want to totally lose themselves."

It's those lost boozers, particularly younger ones, who are of most concern in 2009. The biggest age cohort of hazardous drinkers, according to Ministry of Health reports, are between 18 and 24 years old.

A recent report on the economic impact of alcohol abuse showed the harm of alcohol accounted for over three-quarters of the cost of all addictive drugs - dwarfing the harm caused by headline-making illegal drugs like P.