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Bay of Plenty Times, Volume IV, Issue 383, 13 May 1876, Page 2

It is with considerable satisfaction wo gather from the letter of "our own correspondent" at' Opotiki uuder date Ist instant, that- the good people of our sister settlement, Opotiki, are devoting their leisure evenings to intellectual improvement. Our correspondent says that the various societies and institutions now springing into lifo at Opotiki are gradually and surely weaning the fast increasing adult population from the many temptations and dissipations to which the heart of man so naturally inclines in out-dis-tricts. Such a result is only what might be expected from the introduction of such excellent institutions as literary and debating societies, dramatic and athletic clubs, &c. To youngmen and youths, whoso daily avoca-

tions are in the fields> and- who spend many of their evenings in the town, such , and similar institutions are a positive, boon; enabling them to spend, with mental- profit to 1 themselves, those ' many, hours, , which otherwise are for the most part devoted to* lolling against verandahj>osts or parading the streets-,' to the annoyance of the public at large. Why is there no such thing as a debating, or athletic, or dance club in Tauranga? Why does not Tauranga follow in this respect the bright example shown it by Opotiki ? Here, in Tauranga, from year's end to year's end, the majority of our youths do nothing of an evening calculated to improve their mind : their day's work done, they, have nothing to look forward to — nothing to do till bed-time, and who can tell the after-life results of these idle evenings ? We * all know that the hour of idleness is the hour of temptation. An idle person is the devil's tennis ball, tossed by him at his pleasure. Of old, among the Egjrptians, idleness was a capital crime. Among the Locrians, he that lent money to an idle person could not recover it by any legal process, he was to lose it ! Among the Corinthians, idle persons were delivered to the carnif ex. By the laws of Solon, idle persons were to suffer death. The ancients called idleness "the burial of a living man," and now at the present time, in this nineteenth century, the saying holds as true asof yore ! " What shall we do for our youths in the long evenings of the coming winter?" is a question which should be seriously considered by all having the welfare of the youth of Tauranga at heart.