LARRIKINISM.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3201, 1 October 1881, Page 2

LARRIKINISM.

[To the Editor of the Daily Telegbaph.] iSiß,—lt is to be hoped that the public in Napier will do their utmost to uphold our Kesident Magistrate in bis determination to put down '• larrikinism." I quite agree with him that it will be a sad day for this colony when " larrikiniem " is allowed to become as rampant as it is in the large towns of Australia. We have been tolerably free from the vagaries of the crowd of ignorant foul-speaking cubs such as disgrace many of our towns, but the nucleus of such a crowd exists in this town, and if it is not stamped out the responsibility will rest very much with the inhabitants. The police are quite willing to act on receiving a complaint of the doings of these young gentry. The dwellers on the western side of the town are frequently annoyed by a crowd of young ruffians, who assemble in the doorway of the Theatre Royal, even when there is no performance going on. It is the duty and the interest of the proprietors of such places to communicate with the police if th.c doorways of their buildings are made a vantage ground from which raids are made upon unoffending children, or foul language shouted at passers by. There are always, in every town, a number ot ignorant people who will sympathise with "larrikinism," and look upon it as the natural expression of boyish spirit aud energy, but there is a strong line to be drawn between the health-giving, outdoor recreation of our .ming generation, and the assembling together of a lot of young lads, at a late hour of the evening, under the leadership of one or two young ruffians who have run the gamut of juvenile crime, and are quite able and willing to initiate their young admirers into all the vile practices they have learned co well. It is the preesins duty ot every parent in town to take good heed that their boys do not come under the influence of these plague epots.—l am, &c, Q.. Napier, Ist October 1881.