[A humble request: If you can, please donate to help me carry on tracing word histories. Thank you.]

 

The colloquial New-Zealand adjective sweet as is a general term of approval, meaning: excellent, fantastic, great. It is frequently used as an interjection expressing emphatic affirmation, agreement or appreciation.

These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of this adjective that I have found—I am, however, unsure whether sweet as is used as a term of approval in quotations 1 & 3 below:

[?] 1-: From Minor prize to Chch, published in The Press (Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand) of Friday 20^th September 1985 [page 7, column 9]:

PA Wellington
A prize of $2000 in Golden Kiwi No. 232, drawn yesterday, went to a Christchurch ticket.
The unofficial list of main prize-winners is:
$100,000
151995, Sweet as, Avondale.
$25,000
52501, Marire Synd, Invercargill.
[&c.]

2-: From In Memoriam, published in The Press (Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand) of Thursday 26^th December 1985 [page 23, column 11]:

KEACH, Leonard Max—Who so sadly left us on December 26, 1984.
One year has passed, the shock has eased
The pain is deep and still I grieve
I miss you more each passing day
[…]
For most in my mind, is the special way you used to say (sweet as) (nice one) (good value)
[…]
—Inserted by his Mum.

[?] 3-: From the following advertisement for Festival Records, published in Rip It Up (Auckland, Auckland Region, New Zealand) of March 1991 [page 29, column 4]:

NEW GROOVES
[…]
KYLIE MINOGUE
What Do I Have To Do
Kylie’s Hot! Check out the title track (Pump & Polly Mix) b/w remix of ‘Shocked’.
[…]
CANDI
The World Just Keeps On Turning
sweet as . . .

4-: From Harris gang henchmen jailed, by Barry Clarke, published in The Press (Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand) of Wednesday 23^rd September 1992 [page 1, column 4]:

Four of Christchurch’s most dangerous criminals were jailed at two separate court sittings yesterday […].
[…]
Members of the Harris gang alternated between each court room to listen in on the sentencings after being searched.
As Rolander, Neilson, and Isherwood were escorted away by six prison officers, gang members raised their arms in a Nazi seig heil salute. The tall and profusely tattooed Rolander, responded with a cool “sweet as” comment, while Neilson, wearing a Brisbane Broncos rugby league shirt yelled “white on.”

5-: From Rape accused ‘laughed at protests’, published in The Press (Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand) of Saturday 11^th December 1993 [page 20, column 6]:

A man charged with raping a 19-year-old woman kept laughing at her protests throughout the incident, the District Court was told yesterday.
[…]
[…] After he had raped her he had laughed and “got up as if everything was sweet as”, she [i.e., the complainant] said.

6-: From Beer, Not Kola Propeller, by Justin Redding, published in Rip It Up (Auckland, Auckland Region, New Zealand) of May 1997 [page 12, column 2]:

Guitar guy Gareth Price is a happy man, and not just because there’s (warm) Mac’s Gold in the BMG Records boardroom fridge. After seven years of existence, his band Propeller (formerly Semi Lemon Kola) are on the verge of releasing their debut album on a major label […].
[…]
[…] The band sent rough mixes of their new self-titled album to Tool’s management, via their shared record label.
“And they said yep, sweet as. And it was just like, wow, ridiculous. It was just like a godsend.”