The 1893 Women's Suffrage Petition was the second of two mass petitions to the New Zealand Government in support of women's suffrage. About one third of Dunedin women signed the petition, a higher percentage than any other city. In 1889 New Zealand's first women's trade union (the Tailoresses) was founded in Dunedin. From the late 1880s onwards worker activists and middle-class reformers investigated poor working conditions in Dunedin and around Otago. Labour manifestos in the 1880s demanded the exclusion of Chinese as they were seen as working for low wages. In August 1890 the Maritime Council went on strike in sympathy with Australian maritime unionists. “ In 1894 Clutha went dry followed by the Oamaru district in 1905 and Bruce in 1922 and in 1917 6pm closing was introduced for pubs. Otago sent men to fight in the Boer War in South Africa. This was the first of many overseas military operations that mean from Otago took part in.