THE HOLIDAY HOUSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19807, 30 November 1927, Page 7

THE HOLIDAY HOUSE.

OTHER PEOPLE'S PROPERTY. When we rent a house for the holidays we seldom realise that wa are staying in a house that to a fellow being is home. It i 3 the place they have furnished, however horribly (it may seem to us), with care and love and such taste as they possess. Moreover, they cannot b« well off or thav would not have let their home to strangers. I We who take houses this season in Auckland chould therefore 3sk ourselves a few questions this summer. Are we doing the best we can with other people's property ? Do wa suppose that because we are paying so maray guineas a week that we have the right to scratch walls, spoil furniture, break china or glass that cannot be replaced without much expense and difficulty, and generally damago another person's "house when we are so fussy about our own ? Many of us will be in furnished housies this summer—some of us have dogs and children and servants and visitors (I could say a lot about the carelessness of visitors). Are we endeavouring to make everyone careful? De we merely smile when the children lay wet seaweed down anywhere? De we remind our servants to be careful, and show them by our example that the lares et penates of other people are sacred to us too ? Do we courteously warn our visitors about ink—and other "things? As to dogs—we cannot easily prevent big dogs from romping and digging and lumbering about all over the place, but we can even do our best there. But the people who "let their houses to dogs" know beforehand that there is an unavoidable risk, and if they have a beautiful house or a lovely gar'den surely only the direst necessity will make them let it to doggy people, for the owners of dogs are among the most. « . k