Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1901. PROGRESS OF LARRIKINISM.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 23 July 1901, Page 2

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1901. PROGRESS OF LARRIKINISM.

There are all sorts of progressions. The progress of science, the progress of industry, the progress of temperance, and the progress of general intelligence : these are all in the right direction, but then there comes the other side. There is the progress of larrikinism, and this leads by a very short step to the progress of crime. In the Australian colonies-in Sydney and Melbourne ; in London and the leading towns of Great Britain, the newspapers teem with larrikinisra and its results. Bands of hoodlums collect together and insult and assault quiet travellers and stop at nothing—not even murder. Robbery and intimidation has grown to such an extent that witnesses are afraid to give evidence, and the p< lice are defied. Fun and jollity is one thing—it is the exuberance of animal spirits, although perhaps it may be a little rough; but this can be borne with as it is in the main harmless enough, but when it takes the form of associated blackguardism, whose object is to insult helpless women and assault elderly men and rob them, as is done

in big centres of population, it deserves stern repression. In large cities it is almost dangerous for an unprotected female to traverse the principal cities after nightfall. Hitherto the West Coast has been pretty free from this curse, but cases have occurred, and it seems to be on the increase, and which will take the strong arm of the law to repress. It must not be allowed to grow up unchecked. The youth of this district as a whole are exceedingly wellbehaved, but still there is a mixture of the lawless element which if left to itself will taint and corrupt its surroundings. Even at the present time elderly men and females are frequently insulted in our streets, and it is but a narrow line that divides insult from assault and violence. No cases have yet been proven against the youth of this town, but we are afraid that the crime of perjury and the sanctity of the oath is very lightly regarded by some of the members of the rising community. A"on mio rccordo is an extremely favorite maxim with them. They do not see, do not remember, and have forgotten everything. His Worship the SM. has had occasion to remark upon this propensity with the witnesses that are often called for the defence. The policeman’s life is very often not a happy one, and the tendency to “ give cheek ” in return to a request to “ move on ” is often very trying to even a policeman’s temper. We have received letters from different parts of the district complaining of the tendency to larrikinism among the youths of both sexes, but which we have refrained from publishing as we consider such letters, though true enough, tend to degrade the social status of the young. One thing is certain, this incipient larrikinism must be put down, and the police should apare no exertion to sheet cases of this nature home to the guilty ones, and if necessary institute proceedings when perjury is evident and manifest.