AUSTRALIAN HOSPITALITY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XVIII, 1 May 1897, Page 557

AUSTRALIAN HOSPITALITY.

Australian station hospitality keeps the latch-string always out and says, • Come when you wish, do what you like, and stay as long as you can.’ A writer in the February Scribner says that the Australian host places himself, his family, and all that is his at the service of the guest—fishing-tackle, breech loaders, horses, and servants. Such hospitality is rarely abused, though the writer mentions one exceptional case, where a guest prolonged his visit until it wore out his welcome. To one station came a visitor, whose original intention of staying a month was reconsidered, and he remained two. Six months passed, and he was still there. He enjoyed himself hugely with horses, dogs and guns, developed an encouraging appetite, and his host did not complain. After about nine months the host's manner became less warm, and at the end of the year he spoke no more to his guest. The latter was not sensitive, but lingered on for the space of a second year, when he departed and went to visit somebody else. During these two years he was never told that he had stayed long enough and would do well to go away.