Page 1 Advertisements Column 5

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1616, 1 December 1905, Page 1

JUVENILE DRUNKENNESS. WHAT THE MATAURA ENSIGN SAYS Gore, ' Tuesday, August 22, 1905. AT tho risk of. having our motives misinterpreted, and being ojreelve3 denounced as endeavoring to forment an agitation in favor of the liquor party, wo deem it a duty owing to society at large, though possibly having more particular application to' tho local community, that something should be done.to eiposo the distressing extent to which juvenile drinking and juvenilo drunkenness erenow rampant in our midst. Some months ago tho moral sense of the publld wa3 considerably .shocked by a return forwarded to the Fremitr by Mr Wesley Spragg, a well-known Auckland temperanoe reformer, containing the result of observations directed'upon the drinking habits of the youbg men of that city. : Those who have any regard for the future of - our oolony must have learned with feelings of unmixod sorrow that youths of saventesn and eighteen had been seen visiting hotel many of them being under the influence of liquor. But whit shall be said of ths condition of matters such as prevails in Gore under which boys of from twelve to fifteen become iritoxic.ted? 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 district much or all should be left unsaid, We are persuaded that it is the preva-, lence of this same reluctance to uncover ■ AN UNSIGHTLY BLOT-

tbat lias kept tlie subject beneath the'surface of general di:cus3ion fir so long. However, the ugly fact must ba faced that boys in Gore are being ensnared by the liquor habit. .That this will be se’zad upon with avidity by opponents of noriicenso as evidencing the failure of reform goes without saying. But, on the face of it, juvenile drinking is not a natural corollary of no-liconae. It is due,.first of all to the perverseness of. human nature— tho inexplicable sentiment which forms the basis for the. incontrovertible truism that stolen' fruits are sweetest! Further than that, advo-' cates of no-lioense in-compassing the abolition of one particular system, with its elaborate ranrficitions of restrictive legislation,' have failed to recognise that the nlYst Complex system of all, human nature, has not been sensibly changed. The closing of the open bar does not entail the extinguishing of tho appetite for liquor. The di inking babits of the people (though admittedly considerably diminished), which indulged in reoognieed centres under police and public supervision, are now practised prooiiECUOUsly, and tho absence of oversight, is THE GREATEST. MENACE . .

they have to offer. Therefo.ro, if there was need for vigilance before on the p irt of those who had the’ moral andiphysical welfare of their fellows, at heart, . that need has since gained tenfold itl intensity; Failure to retog- . ni e this fact, rather than any shortacminga of no.liceDse as a syetem,-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 mao’s estste are being marred by the habit of fruDkenncss, and if eueh were the inevitable sacrifice ■ to- he made for the purpose merely of saving a few topeirs from theconsequences of their lifelong folly, we should, unhesitatingly'preclaim, in favor of a.return: to .the ; open nquor bar.. But more than a few, boys are omeerned.; Thera is every rpasou to.believe that the - MISCHIEF IS WIDESPREAD, : and, as from the force of oircumstnnoes it is driven underground, the difficulty of coping effectively with it is vastly increased. It is not confined to a cia - s ihat -is merally depraved or naturally perverse. Parenls in all ranks of society, whose ohildren have re-c-.ived the most careful training, have hr.d cause for grief in this matter, and there v;= mauy, doubtless, for whom the shock of rude awakening to the praoiieoj of their son 3 is Etill reserved ' One of the most fruitful sources of this crying evil is the ease with which liquor may be impoited into no-license districts,-and the apparent lack of discrimination -as'to the persons supple'd-. Admitting that possibly tho drink that fo ms the groundwoik for those , JUVENILE ORGIES ' (many of which have become notorious) may not amount to much in point of quantity, it is the fact that it e mrs into the possession of boys'st ail 'that needs explauat’on It is possible to cope with this hideous traffic, however. In the first place, parents ehould exercise the fullest possible contr. 1 over their families and maintain the utmost v gilanoe in regard to their habits and companionships The efforts of .the police should ba directed; pecially to the prevention and detection ofJUVENILE DRINKING " ' ; md the public at large should make it a MATTER OF DUTY md honor to enoourage the strictest fulfilnent of the law. Uales3 action is ,taken llong these lines, tbe fruits of the temperance reforms of to day will turn to ashes in the d'gradTion of the manhood of to morrow. To savo the boys is the whole object of what has already been accomplished.. Around us the Cell is white unto harvest. The laborers are. many and wiling, it- is true, but they cannot h.ve realised the nature of the task that is lying to their hands. ; ■ ~... . ,

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