What does "Have a shake" mean?

[Charlie Bucket]

Hello.
There was a small gathering in 1929 in New Zealand hosted by Mrs Berry, with a journalist from the local paper in attendance.
He wrote the following: "Have a shake" said Mrs Berry in her cheerful commanding way, in bidding the guests goodbye.
I don't think she was suggesting they have a protein shake!
Or a handshake.
What did she mean?

[Mowsehowse]

Nut tree or fruit tree perhaps? 

[mckha489]

Why wouldn’t it be a handshake?

There is this song, so maybe Mrs Berry might have been saying go and have a good time and think of us, or something along those lines,

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SUNCH19201231.2.38?items_per_page=10&phrase=2&query=Have+a+shake&snippet=true

[Charlie Bucket]

I didn't think it was a handshake because it seemed to be an exhortation directed to the group. If you want to shake hands you tend to just put your hand forward. Was hand shaking more a male thing once?
The "Ballad of Hogmanay" was written in the same decade as the gathering and suggests it was a common phrase at the time. Your interpretation, mckha489, "go and have a good time......" sounds pretty good to me.
I'm sorry mowsehowse, but I must be a bit slow tonight. Could you elaborate?

[Andrew Tarr]

I didn't think it was a handshake because it seemed to be an exhortation directed to the group. If you want to shake hands you tend to just put your hand forward.

You don't seem to be allowing for changes in social habits after 90 years.  I seem to remember hearing or seeing the phrase 'Put it there' as an invitation to shake hands - which has always sounded odd to me, and I think might sound even odder in 2022  ?

[Charlie Bucket]

Yes, I remember hearing often "Put it there" in times past.

[Alex Edge]

'Put it there' is a American TV movies cliche for closing a deal from the 1950-1960 British tv era.  Can't remember ever meeting it in reality.
Alex

[Mowsehowse]

QUOTE: "I'm sorry mowsehowse, but I must be a bit slow tonight. Could you elaborate?"

Well it seems to me that saying to someone as they leave your gathering "have a shake", might mean shaking something on the way out of the house/garden/ property.....

So you could invite your guests to shake a fruit or nut tree, on the way to the gate, and take away the produce....... 
  ??

[lisalisa]

could it be a bit like 'shake a leg'?

which could be 'hurry up', 'get a move on' or possibly 'dance'.

The nature of the gathering or who the other attendees were might give more of a clue.