The Evening Star MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3744, 22 February 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1875.

We arc glad to see from the letters we receive on “ Fast Life in Dunedin” and from the coin mu s of some of our contemporaries that public interest is be ginning be felt regarding the social habits of our youth. We are not of the opinion held by the ‘ Mercury’ that there is an “ apparently invincible repugnance of the large majority of their number to mental and physical culture.” A writer who advances such an opinion can scarcely have made himself acquainted with the many movements on foot among young men for mental improvement. We should imagine there is not a Church of any denomination but has connected with it one or more literary or musical associations, or classes connected with Sunday Schools. Then there are clubs formed or in course of formation for the very purpose of escaping the downward drag of being compelled to resort to taverns for means of enjoying games of skill. Were all these various agencies summed up, it would be found that society is at least groping its way to a higher and purer life than characterises the generality of large towns at Home and in other Colonies. We by no means think that the results are equivalent to the efforts put forth j although we are not sanguine enough to suppose that any vast improvement can possibly take place until our social machinery is much improved. One great impediment to advance in this respect is the difficulty young men experience in finding lodgings in which they can, at reasonable cost, enjoy the privacy and liberty of home, combined with equal attention and comfort to what they would receive there. In all rapidly increasing populations this drawback to social comfort necessarily exists. We know there are many hotel-keepers who uo their best to render' their inmates comfortable j but the conditions on which their business is carried on present an impassable barrier to their success. Room is too valuable to be parted with except at scarcity prices ; the demand for it exceeds the supply, and the incomes of those who need it will not afford paying for a large share of it. So full wore all the hotels daring Christmas-tide, that tourists were obliged to go back to Fort Chalmers and sleep in their berths on board a steamer, because they were unable to obtain beds in Dunedin. If, therefore, it were desirable that young men, residents in Die town, should adopt hotel life as a custom, they cannot have command of that privacy which is absolutely necessary to intellectual or artistic advance. If they wish to practise music, they cannot do it without annoying their neighbor in the next room, or becoming laughed at for unskilfulness should they venture to strum upon a piano in a public room. The probability is, were they to venture upon such an experiment, some one who fancied he had music in his soul would gruffly tell them to stop that noise, or take themselves oft’ where nobody could hear their fumbling. If one wished to excel in drawing, he would have to put np with imperfect light, or sit in a close, unhealthy room. When servants’ homes, sailors’ homes, working mens’ clubs, and other similar institutions are so much advocated, and thought to be essential to the welfare of the classes intended to be benefited, it is surprising that no one has thought of a home for young men. Bankers, merchant*?, and tradesmen, deeply interested as

they are in the moral and intellectual qualifications of their employes, display very extraordinary' indifference as to their social and physical comfort. “We pay them their salaries,” they say, “ and obey must shift for themselves.” This apathy we consider suicidal. It is not a question of cost to them ; it is merely one ot leadership and influence. The class that need their sympathy are not beggars in intellect or pocket; they are simply inexperienced, and scarcely in a position to initiate a system better adapted to the requirements of their social status. In consequence, whatever efforts are made to escape the inconveniences to which they are subjected, are desultory and without system. Classes are formed, which are often ill-conducted and cease to be interesting; associations are entered into, the objects of which are frustrated by many who entered into obligations to contribute to them, withdrawing their support on frivolous pretences, and very frequently because there is no leading mind, possessing the tact and ability 7 to inspire an esprit de corps in the members. Dunedin presents an instance in point. Before the establishment of a Government school for drawing, it would have been difficult to find one who could use a pencil or a brush j but now, because they are led, the number of copyists, and good copyists too, is legion—and this in about five years. It is worth considering why equal advance has not been made in music—that it has not is notorious. The fact is there is waste of power in Dunedin through division: division into sects, and cliques, and schemes. Co-operation, that is capable of effecting so much when well organised, is too much overlooked. The young men might easily help themselves, if a good working plan of a wellconducted private clubs, with transferable proprietary shares, were instituted. It needs no patronage, for it might be made self-supporting at moderate cost to the inmates ; although, in the first instance, those who have realised capital might have to become shareholders to give it a start. If merchants and others who invested did not realise a sixpence of dividend, they would reap the indirect benefit of securing for their assistants comforts that at present they cannot enjoy, and through their consequently increased ability and usefulness.