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South Canterbury Times, Issue 2888, 28 June 1882, Page 2

Yesterday there appeared before the Resident Magistrate in this town, quite an array of youths of age ranging from 10 to 15, charged with larceny. The goods produced jn Court represented, perhaps, only a fractional part of the thefts of these young offenders. The disclosures made by some of the accused are worth remembering, for they proved incontestably the existence amongst us of a very formidable larrikin organisation. It appeared that the ringleaders, having (to use the expressive phraseology of one of them) “ sprung a plant,” summoned their “ pals ” to the nefarious work of removing the discovered goods. A number of boys, some apparently of the vagabond class, others bearing traces of respectibility, joined in the scheme ; and, taking sacks, proceeded to remove a quantity of metal, bolts, &c., from the possession of the owner. They evidently knew where to go. They carried their plunder to some Chinamen who paid them for it. The articles were traced to the premises of the Chinamen, and the boys identified as the thieves. Hence the arrest of all parties—-the boys charged with theft, and the Celestials with being receivers of stolen property. The thefts were clearly the work of a gang and it seems to us a very grave circumstance that there should exist in our midst a gang of such formidable proportions. We confess we view this with alarm. It shows an extent of social depravity for which wo were unprepared. There are doubtless degrees of culpability among the young thieves—there are strong minds prevailing over weak ones ; there are leaders and followers. But the end of such career is the same to all; the scourge to the community the same. We look at it thus. Every lad of that batch represents a home where things are not as they should be. We may arouse the utmost vigilance of the police, the most careful attention of the Magistracy ; we may invoke the aid of our schools and the counsels of our clergy. But these will be altogether ineffectual, if there arc not proper home influences. Unattractive homes first drive children oat. Parental example sends many wrong, and injudicious punishment is the finishing touch. The only remedy some parents can conceive of is corporal punishment of the severest description, which resolves itself into such actual brutality as makes the lad fly from home. Once the youth has snapped the tie that bound him to bis homo he is at the mercy of all sorts of influences and is a source of uneasiness to the authorities. We are being pained by the appearance of youths of tender age in our Magistrate’s Courts, ami, as we mark the look of shrewdness and horrible cunning that is fast banishing all trace of the ingenuousness that properly belongs to youth, the future that surely awaits them is opened to us ; we see a criminal population growing up, and wc know that in a few years hence these youths, who might have added to the wealth and stability of the community, will be its scourge and dishonor. Sunt lacrymm rerum. We feel it our duty as chroniclers of events, and as bearing some part (however small) in moulding public opinion, to seriously invite the attention of those on whom devolves the cares of children, to the appalling increase of juvenile crime. With parents and guardians it rests to take preventive measures ; of their success if properly carried out there is but little doubt; the curative efforts of the Magistracy are at best of doubtful avail. If homes were brightened and love took the place of fear, our reformatories would not be so overcrowded, nor would our streets be the resort of boys and girls serving an apprenticeship in crime.