The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. MONDAY, NOV. 25, 1895. THE TRAINING OF YOUTH.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 125, 25 November 1895, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. MONDAY, NOV. 25, 1895. THE TRAINING OF YOUTH.

Some of the strongest reasons that could be advanced in support of the action of the Wanganui Education Board in appointing a physical instructor for the youth of both sexes attending the State Schools under their control, can be found in the following extract made from a speech by Mr Justice Williams in Dunedin a few days ago. The learned Judge was at the time addressing a meeting of the Prisoners Aid Society and gave an exceedingly lucid explanation of the causes which let to crime among youths. He said it was well known physiologically that the age from , 15 to 20 was a period of " storm and stress," and one great symptom in a healthy lad was that of a feeling of 1 restlessness and love of adventure. ■ <• That love of adventure," he continued, > " will have an outlet somewhere. How it will have an outlet depends very much upon the moral atmosphere with

which the lad has been surrounded. The love of adventure is certainly not anything to be despised or crushed. On the contrary, it is to that love of adventure that the British Empire owes its greatness. My own opinion is that a great part of what we call " larrikinism " arises from this love of adventure being diverted into a wrong channel. If a proper outlet is given for a boy's energies, then the result will be beneficial not only to the lad himself, but also to society. If, however, he is reared in a bad moral atmosphere, the love of adventure takes a predatory tarn and develops into crime. That appears to me to be in a great measure the cause of a deal of the juvenile crime which exists here and in other countries. If steps can be taken to get hold of the young people and put them under kindly but strict discipline, giving them healthy and energetic exercise and interesting employment, then we should, I feel satisfied, in time, get rid of our criminal class. I am sure that a great part of youthful crime simply arises from sources out of which, under proper treatment, good might be obtained. The great thing is the moral atmosphere in which the lads are brought up. In one atmosphere the energies of the youth may develop him into a Sir Galahad, in another into a Jack Sheppard."