The Lyttelton Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 1886.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 7927, 2 August 1886, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 1886.

Without being in any sense social alarmists, one cannot ignore the prevalence .of larrikinism in our midst. Of course, in every centre of population there are always some street urchins, gamins who belong to the footpaths and "gutter snipe." There ought not to be any representatives of this class in the Colonies, but there are. and we must meet the evil f lirly and fully. This, we trust and believe, is a diminishing evil, and it is not larrikinism. Larrikinism is a sore of a far more serious kind. The larrikin is a well-fed and sufficiently well-clad lounger, who lives on anything rather than his own earnings. He is usually a clumsy, loud, and coarse-mouthed youth, with a fondness for curiously - cut trousers, cheap cigars, and foul pipeß. He knows nothing, and (far worse) he does not want to know anything useful. He is satisfied to have a plentiful vocabulary of slang, oaths and obscenities at command, an intimate knowledge of sportiDg matter, and to be generally " up to a thing or two." The main streets are his resort, and the evening is his time for meeting with his pals. To stroll up and down or gather at corners with a select knot of brethren, make evening hideous with foul language, and poison the air with bad tobacco, while staring muddily at women and insolently at men passers-by is to them the fulfilment of their being's end. The Cathedral bells, as they ring out tbeir evening peal, drown a good deal of foulness, the Cathedral shadow falls upon a good deal that is disgusting. The number of youths who daily pursue this vicious course is increasing. At every step one encounters a sallow, hardened, leering face—on which are stamped ignorance, cruelty, sensuality. The larrikin is not a drunkard. It is not a race of drunkards that is going to people our cities. These youths are cold, calculating, heartless, bestial. It- is calm wantonness that we observe—and if the ravages of drink make one's h«art ache to con-

template, the future of this new order of beings who do their evil with cool heads fills us with a thousandfold more dismay. For we are brought face to face with a depth of depravity which is really appalling. How to remedy the evil is a question that ought not to be relegated to the churches. They are powerless to act, they have not yet learned to carry war among the larrikins—sinners but not criminals. The Salvationists have indeed initiated a movement which has had immense success hitherto, and which will probably lead to still further achievements. But the Salvation Army has been conspicuous rather by its grand services in the rescue of human beings from the network into which a weak yielding to temptation has betrayed them, — from misery and despair. Its cenverts are usually people with a considerable basis of good within them, with higher aspirations, sympathy, capacity for good who have, either through inherent weakness or the tremendous force of unfavourable circumstances, fallen into an unhappy condition. It is not of such stuff that the larrikin is made. He has no sensibilities,, no sympathies, no aspirations. His faults are not the errors of an exuberant fancy, of a soft and pliable nature, or of a high spirit. He is keen, hard, cruel, depraved. We have here to do with a type of character which is quite unique ; and social reformers could not propose for themselves a psychological study more interesting, or a subject of more pressing interest. In the almost universal crusade against drink, people are apt to lose sight of the new danger that now looms on our social horizon. This larrikinism will have to be met by some statutory provision; and it will have to be brought home to every parent as a personal question. It is simply intolerable that the footpaths of oar streets should be obstructed by youths who have grown up to be street nuisances, and the parents be completely relieved from responsibility as to the whereabouts of their children. And if we want an argument in favour of local industries, here it is, viz.: —That local industries open up avenues of usefulness to our youth. And here again it is for the citizens to realise their individual to support such enterprise, for in doing so they not only minister to the national progress, but also to the community's comfort and social wellbeing.