The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1946 YOUTH ON A PEDESTAL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 42, 25 October 1946, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1946 YOUTH ON A PEDESTAL

FEW towns can boast the number of organisations which exist in this town for the benefit of youth. There was a time when New Zealand sadly neglected its younger citizens, but that day. has past,.and with pendulum swinging violently the other way, youth cultivation appears to have become a regular fetish, so much so that in many instances our young people are losing the incentive to think and act for themselves. Whakatane today carries no less than twenty-seven officially sponsored organisations for the benefit of the boys of its community. There are few growing lads in this town but who are not in one, or perhaps two or three of these. All to the good—but there is such a thing as home. life. In fact it is the very basis upon which our Empire has been built, and the essence for which we have fought so doggedly in the past. Here are a few of the organisations in this town which scramble for the patronage of our boys and our young men: Scouts, Boys Brigade, Rovers, Wolf Cubs, Life Boys, Rowing Club, Gymnasium Club, Football, Tennis, Hockey, Cricket, Young Caledonians, Athletic Club, Swimming Club, St. John Ambulance Cadets, Pipe Band, Citizens Band, Riflemans Club, Philatelic Society, Surf Club, Druids Lodge, Y.F.C., Indoor Basketball, Sea Scouts, Junior National Club. In the offing we have the Young New Zealander’s Club, sponsored by R. J. Kerridge, backed up by his 150 theatres throughout the Dominion, and due to commence operations in this town on November 9th. We have another school of thought bent upon the construction of a community centre, which will cater in an intensified form for all types of organised youthful occupation. ' We wonder where the home-life of which the Englishman has been so inordinately proud over the centuries, comes in. Human nature cannot be classified and made to conform to any one particular pattern. It is necessary to allow a certain amount of natural expansion of character and nature which can only take place, or be called into being on the initiative of the individual person him or herself. The question arises, have we rather overdone things in our scramble to occupy youth along the useful and productive lines of culture, athletics and occupation ?