YOUNG PEOPLE'S VICES

Shannon News, 4 December 1925, Page 3

YOUNG PEOPLE'S VICES

LOWERING THi: MORAL TONE. ! CLOSER CONTROL URGED. "I have been engaged in young peo- ' pie's work for a great many years, but at no time than the present did I feel it more necessary for rightthinking men and Christian workers to throw their weight into this vital-ly-important work." With these words Mr. W. J. Holdsworth prefaced some trenchant remarks following upon his election as president of the Auckland Young Men's Christian Association. "I never knew a time when evil was wrapped up in such an attractive manner," he said, -when even clergymen try to make one of the greatest social vices palatable to the people, vitalising it instead of trying to wipe it out." The finest work being undertaken in the com. -munity to.day spelled ruin unless the churches and social workers did their utmost to oppose those who would wreck the young lives in their midst. Many outside people had drawn attention to the fact that the drinking of cocktails was prevalent among certain classes of women, and in many circles young women were indulging in cigarette smoking and drinking. It was impossible to expect tlie young men of the Dominion to attain their best while that sort of thing was going on because the young manhpod would drop to the same level as th e young womanhood, Mr. Holdsworth went on to speak of an-Auckland cabaret and the conditions alleged to obtain there. Certain people who had visited it, he said, ,had reported that the . things hat went on there were of such a nature that they must have a harmful effect on young people attending it. The speaker had asked an officia of the City Council if the corporation jould not regulate or control the place, but had been told the council

did not possess the necessary power to do. so. In that case, he maintained it was quite time that power to control such ph.ues should be sought by the City Council. When people were trying to create a high mora! .standard for the young people, places like that were deliberately under, nining the work of years. When you see the present laxity in home life and Sabbath desecration — sports of all descriptions are being aken up on the Sabbath —you must > ;ee that all ihii is going to have a "lowering moral effect on the com. munity," the speaker continued. He was confident that if business men realised the value of such an institution as the Y. M. C. A. they would rally round it far more enthusiastically than f they were doing at present. v Enormous sums were wanted to fiance the Y. M. C. A. budgets in America, yet the directors of those institutions had told him" it only toolr about a week to raise the money. That was because the business men of the United States realised the value of such institutions. It was a matter of vital concern to them that a straight iving. God-fearrag set or young men should grow up in their midst . Thenvestment was ;\. sound one. The Y.M.C.A. was a living force that should have the backing of 3very man who wished to see clean, God-fearing citizenship. It offered an inlfuence thai, was the very best /'or boys old and young.