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Kōrero: Manners and social behaviour

The handshake

Image
The handshake

This sketch by William Hawkins depicts him (centre, wearing a bowler hat) greeting his sailor cousin, Thomas Bailey, on board the Kaikoura in Wellington Harbour on 5 February 1867. The men had not seen each other for two and a half years. Shaking hands was until quite recently the only socially acceptable way for adult Anglo-Saxon men to greet or farewell each other, even if they were close relatives.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: E-370-005-1

by William Webster Hawkins

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.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Nancy Swarbrick, Manners and social behaviour – Defining manners, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/artwork/39830/the-handshake (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Nancy Swarbrick, i tāngia i te 3 December 2012.