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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4362, 13 March 1875, Page 4

Our readers will recollect that some time ago we detailed the steps taken by the Hon. Commissioner of Customs to establish a Naval Training School, under the Act passed for that purpose. We then pointed out the several clauses bearing upon the constitution and management of the school, and indicated the advantage its success would be to the mercantile marine of the colony. We need not, therefore, enlarge upon that branch of the subject to-day. What we shall refer to, however, has reference to the administration of the Act. To all appearance it is likely to become ! a dead letter, unless the Government ;take precautions to bring the provisions of the law under the notice of Resident Magistrates, on whom, after all, the success of the measure mainly depends. One can hardly take up a Dunedin newspaper without finding some reference to “ larri“kinism” in that city. Now, although we are inclined to think this outcry is an exaggeration of a common evil, yet there must be some foundation for what is written. How does it happen, therefore, that Mr. Bathgate docs not commit any of the young rowdies who disgrace Dunedin, according to the local journals ? Is it his neglect, or is it the neglect of the police, who fail to bring up the roughs that are such a nuisance on the public streets 1 We might ask similar questions in regard to Christchurch, Wellington, Nelson, and the other large towns. Are there no vagrant or neglected children to be cared for, that the benevolent provision of the State on their behalf is not taken advantage of? We can hardly think so. There are children of this class in every large town in the colony, yet they are allowed to develope into criminals, under the watchful eye of the police, when a little care on the part of the magistrates and police would save them from crime, and put them in the way of-becoming useful citizens.

We are led to make these remarks from the facts iu connection with the Naval Training school which have come to our knowledge. There is at present accommodation for sixty boys ; the staff for their education and management is complete, yet there are only nineteen inmates of the establishment at Kohimarama. Of these,. eleven have been transferred from industrial schools—six from Dunedin, and five from Auckland ; and eight have been committed by the Auckland magistrates. This surely is a sorry outcome of the Act. The school has been in operation for three months, and if the existing provision is not utilised, -what will become of the establishment when the. training ship, presented by the ' Imperial, Government to the colony, is brought into requisition. The whole affair is so unsatisfactory, that we feel constrained to invite the attention of the Minister of Justice to it. Instructions might be issued to Resident Magistrates to assist in carrying out the intentions of the Act; and, as the police are not under the direct control of the Government, the round-about plan of inviting their Honors the Superintendents to co-operate, by issuing instructions to the commissioners and inspectors of police to pay some little attention to the provisions of the Naval Training Schools Act, might be adopted with hope of success. No doubt, their Honors would graciously condescend to give the necessary instructions to their officers ; and in the fulness of time, when the Circumlocution Office had unwound its last skein of red tape, recruits might be had for the Naval Training School.