NIGHT ENTERTAINMENTS FOR THE YOUNG.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 103, 1 May 1894, Page 2

NIGHT ENTERTAINMENTS FOR THE YOUNG.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—ln various ways, attention has of late been directed to the number of young girls to be found nightly roaming the streets, and while many reasons have been advanced for this unfortunate fact, I think one very important one has been overlooked or kept in the background, and that is, the excessively late hours to which large numbers of children of both sexes have become accustomed, by the imprudence ot the authorities of various most excellent organisations, which, labouring (successfully) for the improvoment of the young by means of evening gatherings, have done, and are doing, considerable mischief by holding them much too late, and thus turning into the streets late in the evening big boys and half-grown girls, the latter' of whom are deprived of one of their great safeguards against evil when once they have le&rnt to feel "at home "in the streets late in tho evening. I am by no means alone in the opinion that until reform is introduced in this respect the good done by these societies will be heavily discounted by the mischief occasioned in this way, nor, is it reasonable to expect any great reduction in tho the number of young girls in our streets at night, until parents and societies give attention to this matter.—l am, etc.. Henry Wilding.