6unn3r said:
This all comes from a country that has pretty much legalized prostitution....was the term "double standards" not something that got carried over on the prison ships?
Other fun laws include:
-Children may not purchase cigarettes, but they may smoke them.
-Taxi cabs are required to carry a bale of hay in the trunk.
-Bars are required to stable, water and feed the horses of their patrons.
-Only licensed electricians may change a light bulb.
Maybe its all that sunshine they're getting? Making them go slightly nutty...
Yarp. Well, specifically on the horse thing it dates back to the fact that public hotels ('pubs') had to house travelling intercolonial drovers or people looking for work. Pubs were (and still are) affordable accomodation, and given that pubs regularly served station masters also on the move, as well as other proprietors of local business for meals and drinks, it was a good place to conduct business, make some quick friends, and ease one's travels.
So semi-decent lodgings for live transportation methods were required. It was a big country with very few people in it. Not like the rest of the world, where travelling inbetween towns and cities even on horseback was not so much a chore. Australian climate is also much harsher than the average climes of Europe, or the colonies of the Americas (On average, that is ... Canada and Peru are examples that first leap out at me as places wholly hostile to human life within a natural context). Very little fresh water or good grazing land.
Last thing you wanted was one of perhaps only two horses you have taken on the trip from Melbourne to Brisbane dying of thirst because the lonely inn and innkeeper on the side of a dusty road wouldn't provide a bucket of water and some high energy bran for your horse.
To give you an idea of such a journey, it is 1638 kilometers (Further than Paris to Warsaw), and that's assuming you are using the same optimized path as current 21st century ground transportation. Over a countryside that, in the 19th century, had a far reduced population, ranging from rocky to arid conditions, lacking accurate topographical maps, and in many situations droving 1000s of heads of cattle.
So it made good sense that an innkeeper was required to help take good care of both a traveler and his mount(s). It was critical for business.
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On the taxis thing, that's bollocks. As too is getting an electrician to change a lightbulb. And minors above the age of 16 are allowed to smoke, just not purchase cigarettes.
Upon reading your profile however, I will remind you that a greater number (per capita) of your countrymen choose to live in Australia, than Australians choosing to live in Great Britain. One of the stated reasons is specifically because of our sunshine and our white beaches. It's totally worth the skin cancer!
