IMMATURE YOUTHS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 1, 3 January 1939, Page 8

IMMATURE YOUTHS

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—After reading "Safety First's" letter in "The Post," I feel prompted to pen these lines as a warning against the development of what we in Sydney call the "larry" type—those young hooligans who, with only half an education and little intelligence, set themselves against their fellow-men, towards whom they to harbour a grudge. I can tell you that if they are not taken firmly in hand and shooed off the streets or kept within decent limits by their parents, they degenerate into troublesome types. I have seen such results not only in Australia but in America and Europe. An American professor of sociology recently wrote to the "Christian Science Monitor" declaring that "these young 'braves' hold in contempt all the nobler instincts. The evils of trashy magazines, rubbishy talkies, and piffling radio features most frequently form the basis of their dulled perception of the finer aspects of living. . . . Finally they impede

a country's progress." Wellington is just as badly off as other New Zealand cities T have visited in this respect, though here these nuisances are not so widely distributed, being confined to their own districts. The remedy is to get them young and keep them free from bad associations. They must grow up gradually, and not assume -the mantle of maturity merely by the wearing of two-colour shoes, oiled hair, and clothes of exaggerated cut.—l am, etc "' VISITOR.