\u201cIt will entirely be gone if we have chocolate fish, because obviously you can\u2019t just keep them,\u201d Dunedin candidate \u2018King\u2019 Flynn Nisvett told RNZ<\/a>. \u201cThey go off. They go yuck.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Where this policy falls down, aside from the obvious, is that the chocolate fish already is a form of currency far more powerful than the New Zealand dollar. For over a century, the marshmallow-filled, chocolate-covered sea creature has been a coveted reward for achievements big and small, be they dished out to children at Pohinga Valley rifle club in the 20s<\/a>, presented to \u201ccrab dancers\u201d on stage in Wellington in the 30s<\/a>, gorged upon by Canterbury students<\/a> during O-Week in the 80s, and used to sweeten Mazda deals in the 90s<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The chocolate fish story is widely believed to start with British-born Richard Hudson, who expanded his biscuit and cake factory in Dunedin to chocolate manufacturing in 1884. While there is no precise chocolate fish launch date, an early mould was found at a former Hudson\u2019s site<\/a> and ads suggest they had become popular by the early 1900s (\u201cBOYS! You can buy your girl a chocolate fish for a half-penny<\/a>\u201d). A 1929 visit to the competing Heard\u2019s factory in Parnell revealed a machine \u201cturning out shoals of chocolate fish as numerous as herrings in the Gulf<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1930 Hudson & Co underwent a \u201cCHOCOLATE MERGER<\/a>\u201d with Cadbury Bros Ltd to become Cadbury Fry Hudson Co, which would establish them as the local home of the chocolate fish for the rest of the 20th century \u2013 until Cadbury relocated to Australia, but more about that later.<\/p>\n Aotearoa\u2019s chocolate fish industry was thriving, but there was also a dark underbelly of crime emerging. In 1926, Rice\u2019s sweet shop in Whanganui suffered a spate of late night burglaries<\/a>, after which \u201ca number of tell-tale teeth marks were found in the chocolate fish.\u201d A confectioner\u2019s on Dominion Road suffered a similar fate in 1930<\/a>, when chocolate fish were \u201ctossed on the floor\u201d by thieves. In 1937, two Christchurch shopowners were fined \u00a38 for illegally trading on a Sunday<\/a>. Their defence? The single item sold was a chocolate fish for a hospital patient.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the late 1960s, the country transitioned from using pound sterling to the New Zealand dollar, and chocolate fish customers were perturbed to find an accompanying price mark-up for their favourite treat. \u201cSir, we are very fond of chocolate fish (ie: Pisces marshmallocis var. chocolatus),\u201d one aggrieved reader wrote to the Press in 1967<\/a>. \u201cOn Decimal Currency day we were alarmed to find we were the victims of a price increase. However, we were consoled by a suspected genetic mutation which enabled the evolution of fatter fish.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Others were not so gracious, such as this complainant in 1969<\/a> who described the price hike from three pence to four cents as \u201cflagrant profiteering\u201d by Big Choccy Fish: \u201cThis represents an increase in cost of 60 percent over a period of two years \u2013 an unjustifiably large inflation. The public should protest against the exploitation of a minority group who consider chocolate fish an essential, but now prohibitively expensive, part of their diet.\u201d The furore even made it to question time in Parliament<\/a>, when Labour MP Ron Barclay inquired about the excessive price hike.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat about gobstoppers?\u201d interjected National\u2019s Frank Gill.<\/p>\n \u201cThe member needs a gobstopper,\u201d replied Barclay.\u00a0<\/p>\n A period of economic tumult for the chocolate fish made way for an era of fun and frivolity in the 80s and 90s, beginning with Jim Bolger giving delegates chocolate fish in their lunchboxes at the 1989 National conference<\/a> (listen to Juggernaut S2 here<\/a>). Commemorative chocolate fish were sold at the opening of aptly novel giant brown trout<\/a> in Gore, and were even suggested as offerings to Hamilton\u2019s controversial Egyptian god statues in 1991<\/a>. \u201cPeople should bring whatever they think is appropriate,\u201d said Graeme Cairns. \u201cI for one am bringing chocolate fish.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The 90s was also when the chocolate-fish-as-reward concept began to spawn headlines, dangled as an incentive for everything from a University of Otago psychology study<\/a>, to solving a mystery about a woman cyclist<\/a>, to winning the Canterbury senior basketball championship<\/a>. Its use in low-stakes gambling may have been cemented into culture before that, with Bob Jones revealing that he and Roger Douglas made a bet of \u201cone chocolate fish<\/a>\u201d that Jones would never speak in public again after he punched Rod Vaughan on Eyewitness news<\/a>.<\/p>\n Speaking of the National Party, in 1992 The Coalition Against Benefit Cuts marked the anniversary of 1991\u2019s benefit cuts<\/a> by awarding then-minister of social welfare Jenny Shipley with the Order of the Chocolate Fish<\/a> for her \u201cunsurpassed generosity\u201d. In Christchurch, a giant papier-mache chocolate fish was carried around Cathedral Square on a stretcher before being presented to the Social Welfare Department as a symbol of the one percent increase in income-tested benefits \u2013 aka $1.86, or enough money to purchase three chocolate fish.\u00a0<\/p>\n The chocolate fish was gaining power in politics, but also in popular culture. The 1990 dictionary of New Zealand English<\/a> included \u201cchocolate fish\u201d for the first time, while actor Jay Laga\u2019aia flirtily asked \u201cIf I was a chocolate fish, how would you eat me<\/a>?\u201d on TV3\u2019s dating show Perfect Match. That same year, Gaylene Preston\u2019s Ruby and Rata also incorporated the marine morsel, with eight-year-old character Willie drawn to \u201cthe old witch\u201d Ruby through chocolate fish. Preston herself even described the movie<\/a> as \u201ca going down to the dairy to buy a chocolate fish film.\u201d<\/p>\n All this, and yet no pop culture figure made quite the impact on chocolate fish stocks in the 90s as Thingee, the friendly grey alien on The Son the Gunn Show who lived exclusively on chocolate-covered marshmallow. \u201cThingee just loved chocolate fish,\u201d Jason Gunn told me over the phone. \u201cMaybe it was because he had no teeth and no ability to bite, so there was a certain softness there, but also there was something slightly abnormal and curious about the chocolate fish, which is what many people would also say about Thingee. The two just went together hand in hand.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Son of a Gunn show would receive \u201cthousands\u201d of chocolate fish addressed to Thingee every week from New Zealand kids. Would Gunn ever indulge? \u201cI\u2019m not a big marshmallow fan,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a hard caramel fan from way back.\u201d But decades later, particularly following the passing of Thingee\u2019s \u201cright-hand man\u201d<\/a> Alan Henderson, Gunn has a newfound appreciation for the treat. \u201cI will never turn down a chocolate fish now,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t enjoy the taste any more than I did before, but I love how it always brings back many memories of a very dear friend.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Gunn commends the chocolate fish for staying the course in our culture where other confectionery could not. \u201cSo many great things have disappeared \u2013 Jaffas have gone, and the biggest crime is Tangy Fruits,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd we can argue forever over Crowded House and pavlova, but we\u2019ll always have the chocolate fish.\u201d Indeed, even when Cadbury announced they would be relocating from Dunedin to Australia in 2018<\/a>, several smaller makers stepped up to ensure that the humble chocolate fish would still be manufactured on New Zealand shores.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of these people was Bridgette Yates, co-owner of The Chocolate Fish Company<\/a>. Having worked for government agencies and with her business partner David Shaw working in medicine, they both were aware of the enduring value of the chocolate fish. \u201cIt\u2019s a currency,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a reward for a deed well done in so many different circles of our society.\u201d Where their fish differ is that they are solid milk chocolate, and shaped like the endangered giant k\u014dkopu. \u201cWe give money from the sale of each chocolate fish to help save them and the waterways.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Even with Cadbury ceasing the manufacturing of their large-sized fish<\/a>, claiming \u201ceither fewer good deeds are being done or people just haven\u2019t been following through with their promise,\u201d Yates maintains that the chocolate fish will never die out. In 2019, an Auckland petrol station stopped selling cigarettes, handing out free chocolate fish to smokers instead<\/a>. In 2021, Seven Sharp\u2019s Hilary Barry posted hundreds of chocolate fish<\/a> as a reward for people getting their Covid-19 vaccination, while Bay of Plenty councillors spent $188 on a \u201csupply of chocolate fish<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\nAn early Hudson\u2019s chocolate fish box and the man himself. (Images: Chocolate Fish Company and Business Hall of Fame)<\/p>\n
A selection of chocolate fish ads. (Image L-R: Central Hawke\u2019s Bay Press, 24 November 1948, Press, 10 June 1964).<\/p>\n
These statues both have chocolate fish connections. (Images: Southland Council and Wikimedia)<\/p>\n
Thingee and Jason Gunn. Image: Youtube<\/p>\n
Bridgette Yates, co-founder of The Chocolate Fish Company. (Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n