The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1881.

Kumara Times, Issue 1603, 16 November 1881, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1881.

Laurikixism is evidently on the increase in tiiis district, and stringent measures will have to be adopted shortly to keep in check the growing evil. Bands of youngsters, ranging from eight to fifteen years of age, on mischief intent, are to to be met with night after night in the streets and bye-ways of Kumara. Their language is thoroughly horrible, being such as might be expected to issue from the lips of the most hardened convict in Pentridge, and scores of boys are growing up in our midst who are in fit training for a long career of crime.

The fault lies mainly with the parents, who apparently have n >t the. lemotesf. idea of the grave responsibility which attaches to them. Tlic boys are turned loose into the streets, whore they are to be found many hours after the time when they should be in theii beds. Females are insulted, and no one escapes from abuse. In some paits of th« United States, the laws make provision for the arrest of all children found in the streets after 8 p.m., and in such places the lanikinism element is hardly known to exist. Such laws are not necessary here, as the " Neglected and Criminal Children Act" is in force, and we are informed that it will shortly be acted upon in Kumara. There is a Training School at Kohimarama (near Auckland) where neglected reprobates are sent to, and there is also the Retormatory School at Caver.sham, near Dunedin; and with regard to the latter institution, it may be mentioned that in the year 1579, a proclamation under ihe hand of his Excellency the Governor was issued which declared that " uuder the Neglected and Criminal Children's Act, the Reformatory School at Caversham, in the Provincial District of Otago, shall and may be used in common for convicted children requiring to be de.alt with under the provisions of the said Act in the Provincial District of Westland, as well as of convicted children requiring to ba dealt with by virtue of the said Act in the Provincial District of Otago." It is clear, therefore, that our laws contain sufficient machinery for the suppression of the evil which we refer to, and at any moment it may be found that the Kumara lock-up contains a certain number of the undesirable class of youthful colonists who are making themselves a pest and a nuisance t 0 society. It may be taken for granted that the parents of the lads have no natural affection for their offspring, or they would exercise some control and supervision over them, consequently, they should be at once relieved from all responsibility in the matter. In the Reformatory, the education of the boys would be carefully attended to, and at the same time they would be not only taught a trade by which they might in future earn a living, but would have many of their bad habits eradicated. The remarks we have made are dictated by a sincere desire that it would not be fi»und necessary for the police to proceed to extremes, and that a few words of wholesome advice will put parents on their guard, and that there will be no necessity for expatriating a few of the rising generation of Kumara who have already received repeated warnings from the police.