AN OUTRAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 264, 7 November 1931, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN OUTRAGE.

THE CALLOUS PLEASURE SEEKER. WHY "KEEP OUT" NOTICES ARE ERECTED. Dear Boys and Girls, — The pest of the community, the callous and selfish pleasure seeker —the vandal and the litter lout—is again before the public eye. Labour Day is the opening day of his season of an orgy of wanton destruction of private property and desecration of the beauty spots of the countryside. It is impossible to speak too harshly of the fiend who enjoys his senseless pleasure at the expense of others. The unfortunate part about the activities of the vandal and the litter lout is that scores of "ifiappy hunting grounds" are "tapued" to wellintentioned people simply because exasperated and highly annoyed private property owners have neither the time nor the patience to inquire into the bona fides of the users of their land. To the litter lout nothing is sacred, and to the vandal everyone's property is his—until, having used it to his fill, he leaves behind the mark of his ruthless hand turned to wanton destruction. It is hard to understand the mentality of individuals who, coming upon an unoccupied hut (open and at the disposal of followers of the open road), chopped up the few sticks of furniture for firewood and, when more was required, removed the steps at the back for the same purpose. Even a mongrel dog does not so bite the hand that feeds it. An irate farmer told me that one party, not content with leaving gates open (which might mean several days' work rounding up the straying cattle), hacking at trees and uprooting shrubs and ferns, had the amazing audacity to destroy a full case of tools by wantonly setting fire to it. Is it any wonder that that man, who owns one of the best-known beauty spots of the West Coast, threatens to close his property to the puhlic. The litter lout, though equally wanton and totally selfish, is often a trouble maker because of pure thoughtlessness— a quality which seems prominent in the composition of many people. There is a little settlement, also on; the West Coast, where city dwellers love to picnic. On the morning of almost any holiday the little grassy dell at the end of the road is as clean and as fresh as the stream that runs nearby.' By midday the place swarms with motor cars and screeching gramophones, which combine with smoking fires to complete a picnic ground. The third and final act of this tragedy is enacted the next day, when the "locals" turn out to collect the tins, papers, food, fruit peelings, cigarette packets and broken bottles and such debris that made our little dell an offence to the eye. Such people as these require drastic treatment, but that is a course of action for others to pursue. The young people of to-day, however, can stamp out this evil by keeping a stern check on their own actions and on those of their friends and associates. You young people of to-day can at least prevent a continuation of the practices of the litter lout in your adult days. scoul:s, Guides, organisations for girls and boys, enlist now in the fight against the ravages of f jJ the vandal and the litter lout, and so oJ\Q^* help to preserve our rural beauty spots.