The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1885. CAUSE AND EFFECT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 95, 25 March 1885, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1885. CAUSE AND EFFECT.

The cause, or rather origin of t]ie genus larrikin, has often been discussed when measures were under, cbnsideration for the repression of , the manifold evils begotten of the social blight. A northern contemporary suggests among other causes the fact that an undue proportion of the in-; habitants live m towns. In some colonies the proportion is robuslrou> — wholly unnatural. In Victoria, out of some 900,000 people, a whole third are congregated m the capital, for that alone has a port. There is not another harbour on the seaboard fit for more than small coasting craft ; -Melbourne has the only Seagate through which trade can enter or go out, and hence its exaggerated dimensions and population. It is nearly the same with Sydney. Port Jackson is almost the only ! good harbour 'm New South Wales, nearly a third of" whose inhabitants are swallowed .up by Sydney. And those colonies have considerable inland towns, . besides the two great seaports. Even' in i colonies which possess not such huge ' cities - m our own for instance—^-civic ' employments are also too much sought' j for, and are overcrowded, as m Mel- ; bourne and Sydney, lv is therefore : easy to understand that boys miming ■*! about the rfcreets at night, aud who, ' when growing 1 up, are so often i only' half employed or wholly idle, should fall into bud habits. - For this overcrowding of civic pursuits there is , less excuse every way m New' Zealand -than iv Australia. On that '< continent lnnd fit for tiilage, suitable , for settlers of modest mean*, "is "only! found m occasional patches; the! greater part of the country -is! merely available for pasture.; Unlike New Zeland, they have little good land there, and it is one of the worst watered parts of \\\q globe. A stain, these islands, m these rich fishing grounds which surround them, possess another mighty advantage' over the continent. In New Zen- I land there ought to be abundant ,-an.d ] profitable occupation, both' rural and I marine, forth*? energies and tsnter- \ prise of the rising generationl 'Anil;! ; there would he., if there were ipropeV facilities for;settl( j .inent on the /"land ; if farming were encouraged Wy the introduction of the higl)~|>:iyihg' agriculittro which Nature invites 'iu thitf i>lnrul, but which, forty-iivn yvara afli'i ill*"* foiimliitiou of tlu» colony, is Btill absent, not present ; 'and \i \h» fi>hin«i grounds, cast at our very dooi's, ; vbi'u wbikwl, instead of lying idJei There c;m bo no dou>>t that 'there' i>* u«o strunu a desire oh the part, of .narenis with families to crowd into .

is thai as the childron gnii hevond • jiHrental control they cecei yean .eidu- . cation m the strects^tllat^s ,Mb.f. cftn- : to their mornr^fj| t ' N in^ieofeunr welfare or advancement. The } y)areuts, as a rule, fail to see that bel ter openings for themsse^lveg- .andf - th^irr ~i children exist-. aW distance-^frorh'^ thd*ofties, where > their prospects would be infinitely •better: -^*In good? times they earn m j the. cities' perhaps a higher rate of wages ttian m the "country, but' what ' does*it' avail at -tlie year's end ? -They live more extravagantly r: ..in» proportion, and^V'cpnttftct expensive habits that they would never dream of m tlie conaTrtry:'" Getting - settled on the land should be ; ;Jthe great aim of 'it&iMf* - existence^^speciaily r when their ohil*., dren's fntu%;is considered. Butoncft-. they beconie: accustomed £6 life m towns, hut a small, proportion ever veptiirerto push out into the c6uritry :^ I and '" eiideavour tp make homoa> for i themselves. ' "Pirns will ;ihe evil' go. ! on inpreasing . frpjii. generatipn^to ' generation,, every year-a larger nuni-" ! ber of dwellers m towns, and a^ lesser i nimib'er- able, and willing to ; assi6t m ! the gretit wort of ciilimization.,'. New ' Zealand has less excuse for this 'ord'er ; of things than any other colony, but" : the truth must be told that the existing evil prevails here to an equal | or possibly, even greater extent. i ' ... .» % ' '. I " ' ■ .. ■ '