COLONIAL YOUTH.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 260, 9 September 1879, Page 2

COLONIAL YOUTH.

The following observations, by a correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, were intended to apply especially to the youths of Yicti ria. It must, however, bo admitted that a considerable portion of them is equally applicable much nearer home : Even leaving out of tho reckoning those absolute savages we denominate larrikins, the boys of this colony know nothing of good behaviour, It is only necessary to stand outside a State school at the hour of dismissal, to be satisfied by the uncontrolled viole'nce which is part of the very being of the young persons who are theoretically supposed to be diligently learning those things which often make tho manners, It is no; merely the effervescent|exubrance of youth which shows itself, but there is evidently a spirit of malicious mischief and destructiveness, alarming in itself, and quite the opposito of reassuring as to the future. The young men and boys who are employed in shops and offices 1 are uniformly insolent. If a complaint be made to their employers they are probably sent away, and those who take their places are no better than those who have preceded them. If all this ungentleness of manner were merely unpleasant, it would be bad enough, but it is so seriously suggestive of what is to come. It foreshadows lawlessness and contempt of authority, and genoral social disorganisation. Of larriklnism proper, there s nothing but what is bad to report. The magistrates, indeed, are inflicting much heavier sentences, but as every intelligent person long ago declared, imprisonment has no terror for this class; and the legislature, having a fellow feeling for them, refuses to make the lash the punishment. Only the other day a company of these young roughs surrounded a policeman in Carlton, and nearly killed him with his own baton. So that it would seem that to beat a policeman has come to be regarded as something heroic, It is an extension of the principle of Kellyis'm, which, there can be no question, is now quite a popular institution; and the longer the Kelly gang remain uncaught, the more exalted will be their place in the scale of greatness, An unconsciousness of the baseness of crime appears to be the alarming characteristic of the time. Thus, a week ago, an educated young man, moving in good society, well-bred, and conspicuous as an athlete, was detected stealing out of the pockets of the coats and waiscoats in the dre: sing room of the Melbourne Cricket Club, of which he was a member. And he did it that lie might give liberally to an infamous woman, His life is blighted by the discovery, up to the moment of which he had been peculiarly gay and light-hearted of manner, as if he had suffered no compunctious visiting of remorse for his paltry pilfering,