Story: Women and men

Social life

Social life

For men alone, life in colonial New Zealand was often rough and makeshift. They made the best of it, gathering together to socialise. This group is drinking in a ‘canvas grog shop’ in 1862 at the Kyeburn goldfield in Central Otago. The Otago goldfields had about 700 sly-grog shanties, around one to every 75 inhabitants.

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Toitū Otago Settlers Museum

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How to cite this page:

Charlotte Macdonald, 'Women and men - Colonial beginnings: 1840s–1880s', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/29200/social-life (accessed 26 June 2024)

Story by Charlotte Macdonald, published 5 May 2011, updated 1 Aug 2017