THE ROAD TO RUIN.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 234, 13 December 1888, Page 2

THE ROAD TO RUIN.

The larrikin element is becoming bo strong in Gisborne that we are afraid only the most stringent measures will ba efficacious m stamping it. out. Everyday we are hearing of. some fresh annoyance which has been perpetrated by these budding criminals, and the complaints are becoming so serious that they cannot long go unheeded. Lately those who attend the Salvation Army meetings have had to suffer much at the bands of these young ruffians. On Tuesday night the usual annoyances were completely superseded by the action of one. juvenile scoundrel whose name unfortunately we have not been able to obtain, for publication. He deliberately got a stone of about six pounds weight and threw it in the doorway, the inner panelling being broken. Had anyone been coming out the doorway at the moment there would possibly have been a case of murder against the young villain, We can always allow for an excess of juvenile spirit, and encourage it up to a certain point, but when youngsters take to the perpetration of such offences as that mentioned, there is every probability that they will soon follow closely in the footsteps of the young ruffians who recently, in a Southern town, garrotted another lad. A boy that is fond of an honest “ lark ” is always to be preferred to the namby-pamby bantling that is never safe beyond reach nf of his mo her’s apron strings, but a jolly, happy boy would rightly look upon the cowardly acts to which we refer as most mean and contemptible, and degrading to his sort. Parents are greatly to blame for this increasing evil, and it is a great pity they cannot be made to suffer tor the lawlessness of their children. Tits parents themselves are guilty of an offence against society in allowing the young arabs to run loose round tho streets of a night. Almost any night in the week, children who ought to be in bed hours previously may be seen playing about the streets or loafing round the doorways at any source of attraction. Allowing children about of a night in this loose way i simply preparing them for careers which may surround the grey hairs of their parents with sorrow and trouble. Then let those parents look to it before it is too late.