The Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1879.

Evening Star, Issue 4942, 4 January 1879, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1879.

It is to be hoped that the very substantial sentences inflicted at the Police Court will have the effect of putting a decided check upon the ebullitions of rowdy larrikinism which have been wont to "make night hideous" during the festival of the New Year. Not so many years ago in the old country the "fun of the fair" was a thing unpleasantly rampant at Greenwich and elsewhere, although it was difficult for ordinary individuals to make out in what the fun consisted, the horse-play of a crowd of halfdrunken roughs being entirely confined, as to humor, to self-appreciation. In Dunedin the nuisance has now become chronic of a mob of noisy yahoos taking advantage of "festive" occasions to turn certain leading thoroughfares into a bear garden without any possible pretext of amusement or any ostensible object beyond making themselves an intolerable pest. That young boys should express the exuberance of their spirits by firing Chinese crackers and yelling after the fashion of their kind is a matter at which we may shake our heads, but not very gravely, although exploding crackers in the public streets is a custom which would be better honored "in the breach than in the observance," and it may possibly be desirable to suppress the entertainment altogether. The boys, however, although no doubt present in good muster wherever there is the chance of a row, are .■aot the offenders against public order aiitl peace. Hobbledehoys half-baked you'ihs, neither men nor boys—stunted in l>ody as in intellect, who may be seen btnoking their pipes at every corner of the City, these make up the New Year's Eve mob" and require to be put down with a strong ha.ttd. We have no reason to believe that they Are numerous; on the contrary, the general' orderly state of the streets at night proves £he reverse, and it is only on occasions wherf public opinion is apt to wink at a little extra license that they venture to exhibit themseh'e.3. The proceedings of the last Saturnalia, e.ulivened by the stoning of police inspectors a - wd constables, wrecking the houses of hjwmless people, smashing windows and heads indiscriminately will go far to suppi 'ess in the future any sympathy with such' pleasant ways of bringing the New Year in as has hitherto been condemned' by decent people. The examples made of the delinquents caught red-handed on this' occasion should not be without their effect upon the class to which they belong. They will learn that these pranks are not to be played with impunity, and that a festive an.oiversary is no excuse for outraging the law. Ruffianly blackguardism must be put down at all times and at all seasons.