YOUTHS AND THE COMPULSORY TRAINING SYSTEM.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 66, 18 March 1910, Page 2

YOUTHS AND THE COMPULSORY TRAINING SYSTEM.

(To the Editor.) Sir,~-It has been mentioned in connection with the new defence system that the majority of those who will attend the annual camp will be ypuths under the age of 21; in fact, it was in Consideration of this that canteens received their death-knell in the refusal of the authorities to permit of their presence on the camping grounds. In other words; the "powers that be" intend to care for the moral a.s well as the physical welfare of the boys and young men who will each year congregate in their respective districts. Now, Sir, if drinking is considered to be an evil, and is prohibited, what of its twin genii, smoking? The fact tbat smoking by boys under 21 is positively harmful, and : causes physical and mental. degeneration, is placed beyond dispute or debate by the evidence, not "only of eminent doctors, but of the sallow, expressionless faces which in Auckland greet one wherever one turns. That being so, is it not possible to prohibit smoking by all youths under age? It is not too late, even in this the eleventh hour, to look into this apparent oversight, and I hope that some worthier and abler pen and person than myself will take this most important matter in hand.l am, et<^, LESTER F. GTJBB.