A Night with the ‘Disco Kids’

Mana (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 15, 23 February 1978, Page 4

A Night with the ‘Disco Kids’

by

Hineani Melbourne

Friday and Saturday nights see young people from all over Auckland converging on the inner city discos, many not returning home until the first buses leave at 6.30

a.m. the next morning. Much has been written about who is to bus the children home, control of the discos and the managers, but as usual little has been done. The Disco managers are often seen as social ogres, living off kids, accused of supplying sly grog and generally leading the kids astray. Yet the Auckland City Council refuses to have them licensed as it would interfere with free enterprise. Is the concept of free enter-

prise such a valuable asset to the community that problems of hygiene, under-age drinking and children on the streets at odd hours become uncontrollable? Complains have been made of losses incurred by specially laid on buses for the discos, but if the council had a tighter control of the discos, they could be made to close at a more suitable hour for all concerned.

But what of the so-called problems of the teenagers themselves. The story they often tell is “there’s nothing else to do.” Certainly there is little enough to do in the suburbs if you aren’t old enough to get into the hotels and entertainment is far and few between. Surely society and every person in it has to give a helping hand. Where are the parents?

Social workers, recreation officers and the like seem to be making little impression on the mass of the teenage population. Usually they only come in contact with those in trouble, rarely meeting those who are too apathetic even to get into trouble.

Of course the adolescents themselves are also to blame, seemingly to lack in imagination to organize their own entertainment, needing to be organized by others all the time. Independence, imagination and initiative seem to be the perogative of the kingpins. This could be seen, to mirror New Zealand society in general.