NELSON BOYS, and BAD BEHAVIOUR IN CHURCHES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 68, 20 March 1877, Page 2

NELSON BOYS, and BAD BEHAVIOUR IN CHURCHES.

To the Editor ov the « Evening Mail.' Sir,—l should like to ask how it is that the boys, and even some of the young men, of thi& city have attained such notoriety in bad behaviour in the Churches. As far as I can hear, and as far as my own experience goes, I never knew young people so misbehaved. Some youths of the place seem to be veritable pests, going from Church to Church to annoy ministers and worshippers. Whose children are they? Are they orphans with no one to care for them?.. No Church seems to be free from the visits of these disturbers; and if any place of worship in Nelson is worse than the gallery of the Hardy-street Wesleyan Church then it is to be the more pitied. The conduct of a number of youths in and outside the Church from time to time is 3imply disgrateful. Different ministers have again and again requested more decent bebaviour, and the Trustees seems to be at their wits' end to know what to do with them. I hear ..that several persons have left the Church owing to having their attention so frequently disturbed, and that others threaten to,do so unless matters are amended. I would suggest to the Trustees the shutting up of the gallery, or allowing none but seat holders to go up. Or, if that cannot be done, communicate with the police authorities and make an example of some of the worst. But,-have parents no share of responsibility in this matter?. Do they know or care to know where their boys are on Sabbath evenings and how they behave themselves? ;■'•• "Yours, &c, ■;-■■ Reform.