The Daily News. TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1904. PUBLIC NFINSANCES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 83, 12 April 1904, Page 2

The Daily News. TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1904. PUBLIC NFINSANCES.

A southern exchange, in referring to the summary punishment meted out to a couple of hoodlums charged with drunkenness, obscene language and offensive behaviour on a train, makes some very pertinent remarks. One of the offenders had been perticularly obnoxiors, using language which the term beastly but weakly described, and this in the midst of women, who of course could not escape having their ears polluted thereby. A bench of justices inflicted a substantial line of Jl"), or one month's hard labour, and this should serve as a warning to others. It is inly by touching these gentry in their one vulnerable spot—their pocket—or by giving them a taste of real hard work that thcy»can be brought to realise the necessity of a decent regard for the feelings of other people. This class of offender may be found much nearer home, too, tlmn " in the south." The Elthani Argus recently reported an instance of such gross behaviour in the case of some men travelling on a train returning from a holiday gathering. Young men (sic) and l>oys are alleged to have used disgusting language and behaved in a most unseemly manner in the train, utterly oblivious of the presence of ladies and children ; or if they perceived their proximity must have endeavoured to show their " manliness " Ivy redou-bh'd but misdirected efforts. In the streets of any of our towns youths and young men, or those who are pleased to call themselves such, may soon congregated at certain sj ots and at certain times, and for a female to [tass Kv necossitaies her running the gauntlet of, very often, a string of offensive if not actually obscene remarks. A warning or a homily, followed by u 5s fine, is simply an outrage on decency and justice. Railway official# ami Ihe public must be protected, and the latter should be irtylo to feel that in entering a public conveyance or street they are as safe from aggression as if they were in their own houses. To secure a lessening of the evil the pubjic should assist the authorities, but it generally happens that the "public"—the decent, well-k|ehaved members—are too anxious to ge\ away from the offensive ones, or to avoid having the vitriol splashes of obscenity sent in their direction, to take any active measures. And when the man ill blue appears there is a calm that defies ollicial disturbance ; and so the game goes on. Ctnlio.w youths aimi igjnoranl men, out for what they term a " bit of fun " turn the railway cars or footpaths into miniature. Infernos, and the only cure apparent, short of the lash, is the imposition of a really substantial monetary penalty, and if the commendable example of the southern bench of justices is followed up in all our courts when similar cases are heard we shall soon have less of a condition of things that is a serious blot upon the fair fame of many of the towns of this young colony.