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Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1615, 30 November 1905, Page 1

JUVENILE DRUNKENNESS. WHAT THE HATATJBA ENSIGN SAYS Gore, j Tuesday, August 22,1005. AT the risk of having our motives misinterpreted, and being ourselves denounced ns endeavoring to foment an agitation in favor of the liquor party, we deem it a duty owing to society at large, though possibly having more particular application to the local community, that something should be done to expose the distressing extent to which juvenile drinking and juvenile drunkenness erenow rampant in our midst. Some months ago the moral sense of the publlo was considerably shocked by a return forwarded to the Premier by Mr Weßley Spragg, a well-known Auckland temperance reformer, containing the result of observations directed upon the drinking habits of the young men of that city. .Those who have any regard for the future of our ooiony must have learned with feelings of unmixed sorrow that youths oi seventeen and eightoen had been seen visiting hotel bats, many of them being under the inttuence of liquor. But what Bhall be said of the condition of matters such as prevails in Gore under whioh boys of from twelve to fifteen become intoxicated? It is difficult to approach a problem like this dispassionately, seeing the tremendous issues there are at stake; and while we address ourselves to the task, fully conscious of the gravity of the evil to be exposed, the feeling is a strong one that for the credit of the dißtriot much or all should be left unsaid. We are persuaded that it is the prevalence of this same reluctance to unoover ANT UNSIGHTLY BLOT

that has kept the subjeot beneath the surface of general dieoussibn for so long. However, the ugly fact must be faced that boys in Oore are being ensaared by the liquor habit.' That this will be seized upon with avidity by opponents of no-Hoorne as evidencing the failure of reform goes without Baying. But, on the face of it, juvenile drinking is not a natural corollary of no-license. It is due first of all to the perverseness of human nature—the inexplicable sentiment which forms the basis for the incontrovertible truism that stolen fruits are sweetest. Further than that, advocates of no-lioense in compassing the abolition of one particular system, with its elaborate ramifications of restrictive legislation, have failed to recognise that the most complex system of all, human nature, has not been sensibly changed. The closing of the open bar does not entail the extinguishing of the appetite for liquor. The drinking habits of the people (though admittedly considerably diminished), which indulged in reoognieed centres under police and publio supervision, are now practised promiscuously, and the absence of oversight is THE GREATEST MENACE

they have to. offer. Therefore, if there waa need for vigilanoe before on the part of those who had thb moral and physioal welfare of their fellows at heart, that need has since gained tenfold in intensity. Failure to recognise this fact, rather than any shortcomings of no.license as a system, has been responsible for the evil to which we have essayed to direct thoughtful attention. It is indeed terrible to think that even a few youths'-' on the golden threshold leading from boyhood to man’s estate are being marred by the habit of drunkenness, and if eueh were the inevitable sacrifice to be made for the purpose merely of saving a few topera from the consequences of their lifelong folly, we should unhesitatingly proclaim in favor of a return to the open liquor bar. But more than a few boys are concerned. There is every reason to believe that the MISCHIEF IS.WIDESPREAD, and, as from the force of oircumstances it is driven underground, the difficulty of ooping effectively with it iB vastly increased. It is not confined to a da’s that is morally depraved or naturally perverse. Parents in all ranks of eooiety, whose children have received the most careful training, have had

cause for grief in this matter, and there are many, doubtless, for whom the shock of rude awakening to the praoiicos of their sons is still reserved. One of the most fruitful sources of this crying evil is the ease with whioh liquor may be imported into no-license districts, and the apparent lack of discrimination as to the persons supplied. Admitting that possibly the drink that fOl ms the groundwork for these JUVENILE ORGIES (many of which have become notorious) may not amount to muoh in point of quantity, it is the fact that it c >mes into the possession of boys at all that needs explanationIt is possible to cope with this hideous traffic, however. In the first place, parents should

axercise the fullest possible control over their families and maintain the utmost v gilance in regard to their habits and companionships. The efforts of j,the police should be directed specially to the prevention and detection of JUVENILE DRINKING and the public at large should make it a MATTER OF DUTY and honor to encourage the strictest fulfilment of the law. Unless action is taken along these lines, the fruits of the tomporanoe reforms of to-day will turn to ashes in the degradation of the manhood of to-morrow. To save the boys is the whole objeot of what has already been accomplished. Around us tho field is white unto harvest. The laborers are many and willing, it- is true, but they cannot have realised tho nature of the task I that is lying to their hands.

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