SUNDAY NIGHT LARRIKINISM.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2271, 13 July 1881, Page 3

SUNDAY NIGHT LARRIKINISM.

Foe some considerable time the citizens 01 Christchurch have had to pat up with an evil which haß at last reached such a pitch as to demand putting down by the strong arm of the law. "VVo allude to the insulting and disgraceful bohaviour of bands of larrikins on Sunday ovenings in the most frequented thoroughfares of the city. These pests congregate at street corners, and there indulge in bad language and worso tobacco, compelling ladies, particularly those without escort, to leave the side walk and take to the road. A favorite pastime of these s'veet youths is to distribute themselves throughout the crowd and elbow and push every lady they can by any possibility come in contact with. How it is they have escaped so long what they most richly deserve, a sound thrashing, is a mystery. If, as it soome, tho police are unwilling or unable so to control the traffic in tho thoronghfares of the city, especially on Sunday evenings, then it becomes time for fathers, husbands, and brothers, to take up the matter for themselves. Once a member, or two or three members, of these larrikin bands, receives a wholesome lesson, the evil will bo considerably lessened. While this is so, it is, of course, only as a a last resort that this should be done. The attention of the authorities has been over and over again called most forcibly to the existence of this ovil, and the inconvenience—not to say insult—to which ladies are snbjected. But the evil still exists in full fotcp. Let any one walk on Sunday evening from the Bank of New Zealand to tho Colombo stroet bridge, and he will see enough to make him feel very much inclined to take the law into his own hands, however reprehensible such a proceeding may be. At each of the corners of the street en route will be seen congregated bands of halfgrown youths poisoning the air with their , obscene language and cheap cigars, whilst others are mixing with tho passers by, i and hustling any lady who may not have a male escort. "We confidently assert that in no other city in New Zoa- I land does such a state of things exist, or would be permitted to exist, for a moment. "We are very apt to plume ourselvos here on our ultra-rospectability | as a city, and yet for months we have permitted an evil to grow up in our midst, which renders one of our principal thoroughfares almost closed to our wives and daughters when alone. This is a plain and unvarnished statement of facts which cannot be denied, and upon this we urge the Commissioner of Police to take such measures as will effectually check the evil. If the same apathy is exhibited to this as has been in the past, then those who take the law in their own hands cannot be blamed, because they are not protected in any other way. We leave the matter to the authorities, with a hope that some stringent repressive measures will bo adopted at once.