LOUTISH LARRIKINS.

NZ Truth, Issue 57, 21 July 1906, Page 4

LOUTISH LARRIKINS.

I The larks of the leary larrikin are becoming a menace to the peace and comfort of citizens and a source of annoyance and loss to city restaurant keepers. Only two issues hack "Truth" told the story of how four fellows invaded the Cutts fish-shop, m Ingestre-street, and after stoking their fill on fish and chips, broke away without paying, one of them, m his efforts to evade capture, falling through a plate-glass window adjacent. But this sort of thing is not by any means of infrequent occurrence, nor the only .manner m which Wellington moonrakers disturb the peace anjl defraud tradesmen. It is the custom for bands of/ inane degenerates to parade the streets on Saturday nights making themselves a pest by their braydng and bumping. After the , hotels are closed they will charge m force upon respectable restaurants, where they proceed to "play up top ropes." They terrorise and grossly insult the respectable,, • young women who wait upon them and if cautioned by the proprietor become outrageous. Usually they end by stealing whatever they can lay their hands upon, messing up the tables, mixing the condiments, and taking their departure without, paying for what they have eaten. And under our fool law the restaurateur has no redress, unless he happens to know any of the gang; for he may not, as m other countries, give the gorging gonophs m charge ; he can only proceed against them, by civil process, for the value of the meal ! Could anything be more absurd ? One res-taurant-keeper, m answer to an enquiry as' to why he did not supply serviettes to his customers, said the reason he did not put them down, unless asked 'specially, was that they were invariably stolen by bands, of larrikins. the same reason he did not set the tables with cutlery, etc., until customers sat down. And this m "honest" New Zealand, where some people talk and write about the invasion : by Australian bad characters and allude disdainfully to "Australian immorality !" These peace-disturbers and thieves are not of the low class either. They are well-dressed yqung blackguards, mostly engaged ••' m stores, sliops and offices, but a ginger ale, a cigarette and a barmaid's smile are enough to intoxicate their empty noddles and then they fancy they are voting bloods seeing life and misbehave accordingly ! Regarding the immunity attending ; ■•refusal to pay for meals obtained m restaurants, it is high time that the law was altered so as to bring these wastrels within the clutch of the police. Failing that, proprietors and their male servants should arm themselves with stout green supple-jacks and administer a thorough and utterly unmerciful hiding to the next mob of depredators who try their dirty tricks on honest tradesmen who have to pay their way, and offer insult, and even assault, to waitresses who give the pups no encouragement.