ARE WE GOOD HOSTS?

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 341, 30 September 1932, Page 4

ARE WE GOOD HOSTS?

We publish to-day an indictment of the attitude of the New Zealander towards his visitors — not self invited guests but guests whom he has spent money in convincing that New Zealand is an attractive country to visit. The author of the article is Mr, Will Lawson, a New Zealander, but a writer and journalist who has become much more generally identified with Australia. Mr. Lawson is a widely travelled man and his views are interesting even if , as in this particular case, they are not palatable. He accuses New Zealanders of a eertain frigidity and brusqueness of manner which impresses upon visitors the fact that they are strangers in a strange land. This is really the burden of Mr. Lawson's complaint, although he introduces a number of side issues which are also interesting. It is not so much a specific complaint against Government departments or individuals as a general charge against New Zealanders in general, of indifference to their duties as hosts. With some justice, Mr. Lawson points out that we have tended to develop an insularity of manners which inclines to the brusque. New Zealanders, as a race, are an independent folk, but there is a very fine line between independence and dourness and sometimes this is overstepped. The expansive welcome and eloquence of ! the Continental host would be ! looked upon in this country as j purely f ootling ; it is not necesj sarily that, but rather a nation- | al characteristic emphasised by the necessities of an hotel-keep-er's calling. New Zealanders, as a British people, have the national reserve and restraint, but it is a reserve and a restraint which has been bred in different surroundings and has different characteristics to that of the native Briton. We disagree with Mr. Lawson when he generalises in accusing New Zealanders of a national inhospitality ; but at the same time there is a grain of truth in his remarks which has a ceftain sting. Removed from the foroadening influences of older and more cosmopolitan countries we are inclined to a national self-suificiency which without being intentionally assertive, oceasionally inclines to the self-complacent. New Zealanders, ' as individuals, are among the most hospitable folk in the world and no one should be more aware of that than Mr. Lawson, but in the mass we are perhaps inclined to be self-con-scious. On the other hand, however, there is this to be said'. A proportion (happily small) of the visitors who come to this country, are inclined to patronise and there is nothing that the New Zealander resents more quickly than this particular failing. Other s adopt ah attitude which hardly invites hospitality and rebuffs it when it is offered, while still others apparently demand a recognition of their presence which is out of all proportion to their importance. The great majority of our visitors, however; are travellers who come to the Dominion looking for sport, scenery and travel through some of the most wonderful of nature's grandeurs. But, as Mr. Lawson, very truly points out, scenery in itself is not enough. A mountain peak is a beautif ul, but it is a Cold thing. It is well oceasionally to indulge in a little introspection and if Mr. Lawson's rather over-stf essed views have the effect of encouraging that; introspection, they will at least have done no harm and very possibly, a considerable amount of good. There are a hundred and one little things in which visitors can be

made to feel at home. If every New Zealander looks upon himself in the light of a host who is exiiected to be pleasant without beihg over-demohstrat'ive, visitors, should have no cause to complain regarding what is, aftef all one of the lesser shortcomings of youth — an inclinatidh to selfsufficiency.