"RAGGING."

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 36, 6 November 1907, Page 6

"RAGGING."

The recent Commission of Enquiry has not yet published its report, 'and we are, of course, debarred from review-: ing in detail the evidence given before it: consequently the. remarks , whifch follow must be taken as dealing merely in a general- way with "ragging," its causes and effects, and the possibility of its prevention, or,'at least, of its restraint within reasonable limits. " Kaggiug" is not confined to one particular town, to any special branch, of business, or even to a single nationality. It is encountered in the bar-rack-room and in the foundry alike,- in the aristocratic public schools of England as in the fo'c's'le of a Yankee wind-jammer, in the Kroobey's camp 011 a West African gold-mine as in the students' rooms in an American unj-i versity; in fact, wherever adolescent males of the human genus are congregated. The brute instinct is as strong in- the,'lanky •youth as in the irrepressible small boy, andj given a favourable environment, will as surely mani-' fest. itself. • "/•"

The. question may be asked whether a nervous and high-strung man, however inoffensive, is not out of place on the footplate of a locomotive; also, whether " ragging" does not tend to eliminate those unfitted by nature for any calling in which personal contest is probable. It must be confessed that however humanitarian one's tendencies the answers to these questions are hard, to find. Now, a lad who does not flinch from the often rather _ woird ritual pursued with newcomers, is very soon left alone, not;so much from a conscious feeling of respect for, his fortitude as from a realisation of the fact that it is impossible " to get a rise out •of him." While it vfould perhaps bo too much to say that a foreman —or his analogue the "head-boy," " etc.—actually connives at the horseplay, he knows from experience that as a rule a lad with,a fair share of practical common sense will sufl'er but little either in self-respect, in cofufort of person, or in output.. Having been through the mill himself ho. also realises the futility of intcrferqpco. It may be argued that it is economically ■wrong to permit the misuse of time for which national money has been expended in wages, and this is clear enough; but it must also be evident that if sufficient work is provided to fully occupy the time of the employees during working hours there would be' no idle moments and therefore no ragging. AVc have yet to hear, for example, of the ragging carried on dur* ing the night shift, at the municipal car sheds in the various centres. It is frequently said that bullying is bad for the bully and for the bullied alike, but such horse-play as that which wo are

discussing only develops into bullying when a bully—i.e., a personality abnormal, cruel, and more or less domi-nating—-is present. Such an'' individual is frequently—though', by no means invariably— a " coward," and rarely an athlete, practically never a boxer. _ His power rests upon the influence his aggressiveness has gained for him, and this influence can be swiftly and completely destroyed. ■ As regards the injured party, it.must be admitted that it is. cfertainly hot- too pleasant to be constantly under fire—even if the missiles are soft- and unctuous —to be tripped up at 'every turn by artfully arranged''obstacles, tofind, after a momentary absence, one's, work all undone, or to have one's personal belongings tampered with; bilt a. normal lad can recover from a series of such petty assaults scattered- • over only one-third of his day.; A boy at a boarding school or a recruit in a bar-rack-room is in different;' case.'V He can never feel free from his lloralent'ors day or night, and, serious and permanent harm may be done. Temporary expedients .for preventing " ragging ''.' suggest themselves, but it has always, proved- a difficult thing to check effectually.' The holding of public enquiries on such cases does not .seem likely to produce any lasting' good,/. The youths concerned in the matter probably feel an exaggerated importance in themselves from the publicity tliey,receive, and wear their haloes with all the modesty they may. A number of lads who had probably very little with the skylarking have no doubt been compelled to "throw in their lot wtih the rowdies. "Oh the carpet" the lads will almost invariably stand shoulder to shoulder. Kipling's remarks in the Jungle Book' concerning the Bandar Lag might be studied with advantage by' those desirous of obtaining an insight into the mental processes of the youths whose puerilities have bulked so large of late-«in the journals of New Zealand. ■'