THE HOMESTEAD AND THE HOUSE 247 



It may be rough, but it is often the dwelHng-place of 

 refinement and culture.* 



No colonial house of any pretensions would be complete 

 without its garden, full of exotic blooms. None of the 

 wonders of the great country houses are, of course, to 

 be seen either in Australia or New Zealand, but they are 

 adorned by native or imported wealth of blossoms, 

 growing in the open, such as few Enghsh mansions can 

 show. The great hedges of cactus that struck the visitor 

 in Sir George Grey's island of Kawau, do not grow 

 further south, at least to any size, but the luscious 

 passion-fruit and the gorgeous sun-flower are widely 

 spread. Just as colonial homes are often decorated by 

 " all sorts of nondescript treasures, placed in one's 

 boxes at the last moment of leaving English hall or 

 rectory by careful loving hands of mothers or sisters." 

 So in Canterbury " the flowers and shrubs of Old England 

 grow side by side with the wild and lovely blossoms of " 

 the new island home. In the court of an Austrahan 

 station a handsome gigantic convolvulus round a central 

 tree, while " morning glories " twine their graceful stems 

 on the posts of the verandah. Often there were acres of 

 garden, with great clumps of willows and acacias, but 

 the garden might be almost as lacking in design as the 

 house. There might be " acres of fruit-trees, with 

 prairie-grass growdng at their roots, trees whereon grew 

 luscious peaches and juicy egg-plums ; long vistas of 

 grape-vines, with little turnings and alleys, regular lovers' 

 walks, where the scent of the honeysuckle intoxicated 

 the senses." At the foot of such a garden a beautiful 

 stream, with its pebbles flashing like opals in the sun- 

 light, was fed by the mountain snow. In the lately 

 savage Northern Territory even homes that are on the 

 confines of the desert are adorned with oleander and 

 other trees. Lawns and gardens made and kept by the 

 blacks humanise these wild spots. Other stations in 



* Grant, op. cit., i. 153 ; Barker, Station Life ; Daly, 

 op. cit., 340-1 ; Wise, Commonwealth of Australia, pp. 40-1. 



