PROFLIGATE YOUTH

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24749, 24 November 1943, Page 2

PROFLIGATE YOUTH

For the second time within recent weeks a Judge, dealing with youths who, in spite of earning high wages, appeared for sentence on charges involving dishonesty, has imposed a measure of compulsory saving. Mr. Justice Smith, taking this course in Wellington yesterday, was following a precedent set by the Chief Justice at the end of September. In each instance the Judge remarked on the ample funds the offenders commanded and on the sense of irresponsibility which seemed to have developed in consequence. It is, of course, very possible that .hese are exceptional cases, brought into notice through the Courts. Even if this is so, there are enough exceptions to be disquieting. There has also been evidence of other young people, innocent of law-breaking, squandering all they earn without giving a thought to the possibility that ample work, with high wages and perhaps substantial overtime, may not always be so readily available. It is all part of the feverish

and artificial social state brought about by the war. If youths with no background of experience to stabilise them are carried away by it, they should be helped rather than merely censured. It is particularly unfortunate that compulsory saving as a remedy is left to the Courts, to be applied only after the law has been broken. If these youths were drawing such wages in Britain, the State would impose a measure of thrift upon them, as part of the general scheme of compulsory saving which obtains there. Their tendency to go astray would be restrained, and they would bo accumulating credits for use after the war. The absence of such a scheme in this country is to be deplored for many reasons. Not the least is the beneficial effect it would have on young wage-earners, who are allowed at present to dispose of far more money than is good for them.