The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1876.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 90, 4 August 1876, Page 2

The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1876.

Soke few years since the Victorian Legislature was much perplexed as to the most efficacious method of dealing with what was termed " the larrikin nuisance," and inach of the time of the Session was wasted in the vain attempt to solve so

knotty a problem. The opinion of the House was far from unanimous," for -while one portion of the legislators advocated severe repressive measures, even to the flogging of the delinquents, another, and the more numerous one, viewed the escapades of the reckless juveniles as merely the outcome of an excess of animal spirits, to curb which, they declared, would be both impolitic and unjust. As a consequence, the question was abandoned, the Assembly shelved a matter so difficult to deal with, and the young ruffians were left free to play their peculiar pranks with impunity. That such a course was a most egregious mistake even these who opposed harsh measures afterwards were forced to admit, for the extremes into which the "buoyancy of their spirits" betrayed those youthful britrauds were of such a nature that the magistrates were compelled in the interests and safety of the public to override the law as it stood, and make wholesome examples of those brought before them. Day after day the newspapers teemed with the reports of outrages upon unoll'ending j citizens, a favourite amusement being the | standing at street corners, armed with a i bottle of vitriol, with which to baptise eacli unprotected female as she passed. Unfortunately the evil so deeply rooted and so widely spread in Victoria, is not confined to that Colony, for New Zealand has to bewail the possession of a good many representatives of the <ye;u«. Indeed, so general has the obnoxious class

become that there is no town in the Colony free from the pest, and in this respect O.imaru lias not been more favoured than elsewhere. <Jn more occasions than one recently has the larrikin element; made itself distressing}- apparent in this town, and those occasions are selected for its exhibition when the respectable portion of the community seek to enjoy the recreations which periodically visit us. Unfortunately, lamkinism or juvenile rowdyism is one of those evils, like the vice of intemperance, which the legislature is, in a great measure, powerless to grapple with unless aided by assistance from another quarter. Those with whom the duty lies, and who are the fitting persons to take active steps in the matter — the parents—are invariably blind to the consequences of their neglect, or too lazy to take the proper steps towards the remedy. Lamkinism is an evil wholly indigenous to the Colonies ; for, although the Old Country is not without a plethora of the proverbial " roughs," the positions of the two classes are widely different —the rough'' is a rough because he has been born one, so to speak; that was liis inheritance when he first entered the world, or, to use the words of a clever writer 011 the subject in Chambers's Journal, "the rough comes into the world in a low-ceiled stuil'y bed-room, beside the bed a broken chair or two, a scrap of looking-glass. He is wrapped up in a blanket, and dressed in the clothes which liis mother, someway or other, always seems able to provide, frequently from the Dorcas Society of the neighborhood or the parish. He is cradled either in a corner of his mother's bed, or in a box in which fish, fruit, or firewood lias been hawked about. His father welcomes him with a jovial burst of the language of Billingsgate, but soon tires of him, and contents himself with recognising him as a fact, while he appears to ignore liim as offspring or relative." Under such circumstances is it to be wondered at that he should develop into the more than useless member of society which lie does I that there is very little nobility in liis character, and very little admiration for it; 110 moral courage and very little physical; and that honesty, truth, mercy, and generosity, and all the qualities which ennoble true manhood are matters of which he is entirely unconscious I Not so is the childhood of liis Colonial counterpart. With very few exceptions, the parental affection has been bestowed with too lavish and improvident a hand, and the most vicious specimens are those whose social positions should have placed them beyond such baneful influence. The fault lies with the parents ; for the absence of restraint in childhood only le;:.ds to self-indulgence in more mature years ; they commence by getting their own way in minor matters, and end by claiming it at all hazards and sacrifices, scorning subordination, detesting all honest labor, and becoming a heart-break to those to whom they should be a pride, a burden to themselves, and a terror and pest to society.