Beer glass

This glass was manufactured for the Hotel Association of New Zealand (HANZ) by New Zealand's major national glass manufacturing company, Crown Crystal Glass. It was one of a range of industry-standard drinking glasses introduced by HANZ in 1963. It was possibly aimed at women drinkers because of its smaller size of 7 ounces (men generally drank from an 8 ounce glass).

'The 6 o'clock swill'
The glass comes from the final years of an interesting period in beer drinking history. Introduced in 1917, the 6 o'clock closing (of bars) dominated male social life in New Zealand and became known as 'the 6 o'clock swill'. After work on weekdays or rugby on Saturdays, patrons (mostly men) would down as much alcohol as they could before closing time. Beer was the favoured drink.

To speed up the drinking process, beer was dispensed from plastic hoses connected to a tank in the cellar. Patrons could either drink at the bar or take jugs, from which to fill their glasses, back to standing tables for a slightly more leisurely intake. Six o'clock closing lasted until 1967 (50 years), when closing time was moved to 10 o'clock by public vote.

HANZ
HANZ regulated New Zealand's hospitality industry from 1958 until 1995 (when it became the Hospitality Association of New Zealand), including issuing licences to run public hotels (whose bars were called 'pubs' for short). In the 1960s, alcohol could only be sold and consumed publicly in licensed places that provided accommodation.