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South Canterbury Times, Issue 2192, 29 March 1880, Page 2

There is an old saying “you cannot put old heads on young shoulders” which applies with some force to our volunteers. These young men when at home, and especially when undergoing drill, are models of rectitude. It is only when they arc on the travel that some betray symptoms of larrikinism. The worst of the matter is that when these freaks arc indulged in, the odium and reproach falls copiously on guilty and unoffending. Because a few misguided young men from the South whoso exuberant spirits had probably been stimulated somewhat by their efforts to get rid of the fatigue of a long journey misconducted themselves at Ashburton the other day by demolishing a confectionery establishment, there is an inclination on the part of many staid people to condemn the reviewers as a whole. Now, although wo heartily sympathise with the unfortunate tradesman, who experienced, in a lime of peace, a foretaste of what military occupation and foraging expeditions involve, we arc unable to see why the generally well-behaved rank and file should be told off for indiscriminate and unmeasured censure. AVc arc assured, for instance, that the Timaru contingent did not participate, even to the extent of a lozenge or an apple in the Ashburton escapade, and why people who have arrived at maturity should shako their heads, predict all kinds of rioting in Christchurch, and designate the volunteer review “ a glorious drunk” or a “disreputable public orgie,” is more than wc can fathom. If the youth and rigid discipline of our volunteers arc taken into consideration, some excuse will be found for the infantile amusement of those who wrecked the confectioner’s establishment; and wc have no doubt that if they arc applied to they will willingly repay all the damage they have done, besides sincerely apologising for the liberty they abused.