CHILD SUICIDES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5347, 5 November 1928, Page 2

CHILD SUICIDES.

ALARMING INCREASE.

A SOCIAL QUESTION.

, Are children so sophisticated! tr-day that they become literally bored to death at the; age of nineteen or .twe.nty ? asks a writer in| the .“Dominion.” The alarming increase in the number of child suicides recorded year, after year certainly suggests that the average child of life at an early age, and. failing relief in nqw sensations, seeks release from this tame old world in dteath. Statistics have ; revealed that one period, namely, between the ages of 15 and 19, staqds out in bold relief as the clanger mark in the child’s life, as it is during that periqd! that child' suicides are most common; It has also bejen noted that this desire to take one’s own life is more common tq (females, and .that disappointed girls not infrequently seek oblivion per medium of the poison bottle. Those whq have studied) this tragic phose of moclgrn life are not prepared to assigni one outstanding cause fqr it. Rather, they seem to think that a combination of circunistanc.es are responsible for this grqwing desire to evade the trials and troubles of life. Young girls disappointed in love, youths checked by well-pneaning parent.?, a nd children of either, sex deprived of their desires are the most frequent subjects of suicide. Here, indqed, is a. question demanding the attention of all who have the welfare of civilisatiqn at heart.