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Story: Alcohol

Alcoholic picnic, 1860s

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Alcoholic picnic, 1860s

This drawing from around 1864 shows a group of respectable colonists enjoying a picnic. The text begins: 'Pleasures of a Picnic enhanced by a little Irish Beer.'  At the time alcohol was accepted in respectable society as an appropriate way to add merriment to such occasions.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: E-248-q-012

by Andrew Thomas H. Carbery

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Jock Phillips, Alcohol – Colonial drinking, 1800–1880, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/40665/alcoholic-picnic-1860s (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Jock Phillips, published 11 January 2013, updated 1 April 2016.