THE IVIMORALITY OF GREYMOUTH

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 976, 12 September 1871, Page 2

THE I VIMORALITY OF GREYMOUTH

|TO THE EDITOR.] Sir, — I am pleased to see that Botne one *has at last taken up the cudgels in defence of the town against the statements of Mr Revell ; and " Citizen " deserves the thanks of his fellow-townsmen for having administered to the author of the report a well-merited castigation. To have allowed Mr Rev ell's report to go forth to the. world, without protest would naturally cause every virtuously-disposed relative, acquaintance, or friend to where your columns can reach, to suppose all here were living in a state of utter debasement and immorality, and rendered totally unfit to again, mingle with, or among those circles in which they formerly associated. It is a most serious matter to charge an entire community with auch matters as the Warden has done, and the very fact of his official position carries to the uninitiated a great weight a3 to its truthfulness. Besides, it is generally supposed that Wardens are anxious to praise up their districts and smooth over such subjects, but every person abroad who read these charges >vill be strengthened in the belief that society here is frightfully constituted, otherwise no Warden could so havo written. Having thus, as it were, prefaced the subject I will endeavor to take these charges seriatim, and commence with the grave one that " the immorality is so great that parents are afraid to send their children to service; '?; 1 have lived several years on the Grey, and this is the first time that I ever heard such a statement made ; but now, when made, I call it a sweeping calumny that is quite unmerited, and will only recoil upon its author. During these several years I have mixed very freely with all classes through the nature of my pursuits, and my observation has been keen enough, and my opportunities of acquiring knowledge of such a charge good enough to entitle me conscientiously to say that I never heard it before made ; nay, more, 1 will now add. in my opinion and tho opinion of my fellow citizens it should never have been

made. In the second charge, regarding the frolics of a number of boys, exuberant of health and disposed for fun, whose daily occupation debar them from the benefits of out-door exercises except at night, to stigmatise them as members of the "larrikin" tribe is shameful. It is an insult to any and every well-dis-posed boy, as well as a greater insult to his < parents and his employers to permit him to merit such an appellation, because, with very few exceptionsjndeed, Greymouth has been remarkably free from the genus. I can speak (from close, personal knowledge of the other towns on the Coast) that we have fewer of this class than any of them, and Mr Revell by his remark has incautiously committed himself to a serious error. A wanton and deliberate insult to a father by calling his son by the now opprobrious epithet of larrikin, as such could only be made by his wanting in discretion* however much he may possess of zeal in the exercise of I his duties. One, or at most two cases have come before him, where the accused were not so much of the larrikin tribe as professed thieves, but as one swallow does not make a summer, such four or five young thieves leaven the reputation of the entire youth of a town. I also only remember of two or three young houseless Bedouins being brought before him during all the years of his official career, and they were children neglected by their mothers, who could have been compelled to maintain them, and would have done so, had sufficient energy been shown by the police ; but beyond this, I affirm that Mr Revell had no foundation for such a general condemnation of the youth of the town, and for having made such he 'merits the censure of every parent. As to his fling at the defective Licensing Act, we know that in the reading of that Act he has placed himself at utter variance with the two ; County Chairmen, and therein lies the real head and front of the town's offending. It is not his province to make laws r nor to over-rule them when made, but to administer them to the best of his abilities. It is true thatjthe indiscriminate granting of licenses and want of information are evils to bo deplored, and by this community they are deeply felt ; but I hope, from the tone of politics, not much longer time will elapse before these evils are remedied. In the latter we are no worse off than our neighbors, and Mr Revell, in his magisterial capacity, could always avail himself of the reformatories of the Colony, and ship off the depraved " all" of the children who, in his opinion, require incarceration. Every paltry station where a magistrate presides cannot, be expected to possess a gallows, and why, then, should such every little station or town be expected to possess a reformatory. The County has not the means to spare for maintaining such, and I much doubt "whether, if the funds could "be spared, they could build. such -a one as would be deemed large enough to meet the demands made upon it by the author of the report. As for Mr Revell's slur upon certain parties letting their houses for brothels, I say it is the duty of the police to see that the occupants of such houses do not misbehave themselves, nor be allowed to reside in them. He has previously exerted himself in this direction, and cleared a large number out, but the fact of denouncing the property holders as enconragers of immorality, when he knows that the members of his own force hold the power of removal of such bad characters in their own hands, only proves that his zeal sometimes slackens. It is a pity that such a charge can be, made, but in the name of common humanity let us hope that from the class who inhabit such houses some Magdalens may yet come whose unfortunate lives might be at once thrown away were their present homes taken from them. To let houses to such is common to every community, and the carrying out the custom here was not required to be animadverted to in such a strain as has been done in the Warden's report. 1 accord to its author praise for the next paragraph, but as he requires to be paid his salary, and" his clerks want theirs, while minor claims for other employees are always accumulating,. I cannot see how the evil can be welt remedied at present. I must confess I do not like this mode of reasoning, nor would I advocate its adoption in towns of larger growth, or communities where there are .other and more extensive sources of permanent revenue, but in this, instance I must ask for the doctrine of expediency to be allowed until circumstances so come round as will without hurt enable us to carry out the abolition of such licenses. The concluding paragraph of this report is so general in its nature that I can only characterise it as a gross exaggeration, and should be determinedly taken up by all the respectable publicans in this town. I have thus carefully gone through this report, and have only to characterise it as one that is not according to . the facts stated as a whole. Immorality to a certain degree does exist, but nothing like to the extent conveyed here, no not by one-thousandth part. In fact, we are no better and no worse than our neighbors, and therefore to attempt to become . an exponent of such a state of mattets was not wanted by the people from Mr Revell. In conclusion, sir, I would ask of you, if it is the province of the Warden of the Grey District to report as a Warden upon the morality of the town of Greymonth ? In my opinion, he has overstepped his position for the purpose of casting a stigma upon this community. This town has long been withdrawn from the gold fields, and any such statements emanating from him should have been given in his report as a Resident Magistrate. This, however, would have only gone to the General Government, and been then lost sight of. I am, &c, Old Resident. [We have been compelled to "cut out" fully one-half of tho above letter, as sent to us, and correspondents should remember that although a newspaper is a medium for the honest expression of public opinion, it must not be made a conveyance of personal abuse. — Ed.]