Bowing to barbarians

Press, 8 November 1984, Page 20

Bowing to barbarians

Decent society, molly-coddling to a fault, is about to yield further ground in deference to pubescent barbarians. Aggressive and abusive behaviour from young tearaways of 12 and 13, some of whom apparently are abusing their bodies with glue-sniffing or worse, seems likely to restrict the hours of the Redwood Library. Because of complaints from staff and patrons, the Waimairi District Council is considering closing the library early in the evenings. The problem is not confined to Redwood. The new Canterbury Public Library — as inviting a sanctum as one could wish — also experiences difficulties, but the greater number of staff and members of the public present there seems to impose some restraint. Library staff deserve the greatest sympathy in this. Neither they nor the genuine users of the library should be subjected to the offensive intrusions of these hooligans; but early closing of the library is no solution. On its own, restricting the hours of the Redwood Library is of little enough moment except to the staff and the unfortunate readers who will be deprived of a service they pay for in their rates, and to which they are entitled. It is, however, another backward step in surrendering to the dictates of bad manners and violence for the sake of a quiet life.

It is all very well for the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, to say that a sense of hopelessness and aimlessness among the young is leading them to destroy their minds by glue-sniffing, and that youth unemployment is at fault. At 12 and 13 years of age, the slubberdegullions at the Redwood Library can know nothing of unemployment, but much of idleness, and nothing of discipline either it seems. The real problem here is that the parents lack either the desire or ability to control their offspring and that society, too much a slave to a liberal benevolence for its own good, lacks the courage or has forgotten how to remonstrate. Libraries generally do a lot to inspire youngsters with the wonder of books and the great worth to the community and the individual that a free access to them brings. If the theory of youth despair has much substance, as opposed to. youth indolence or delinquency, the wonder is that more young people are not making use of their unemployed time in the libraries, immersed in the self-improvement that libraries offer. The problem at Redwood should be treated as the disruptive misbehaviour that it is. March the culprits home to their parents, or see them off the premises when they create — either course is preferable to pandering to anarchy in short pants.