YOUTHFUL DRUNKENNESS IN INVERCARGILL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14281, 1 August 1908, Page 7

YOUTHFUL DRUNKENNESS IN INVERCARGILL.

Sib, —The recent references by Mr Harnett to the sobriety of liweicargiU lave opened up a field of controversy among those, who have the welfare of that city at, heart. A few weeks ago I visited Invercargill, and can Bpeak authoritatively of tho drunkenness which goes on among the youths of Inveroargill, both in regard to outside and inside drinking. In the 1 footsteps of no-license has followed tho introduction of the two-gallon keg. This means a cheaper and easier method of getting ' liquor, and naturally it is a means which wins tho approval of all. But tho pity iof 1 it is that the two-gallon keg has not teen confined only to those well advanced in yews, bat it lias now become tho custom of hundreds of youths—many of them of anago which would prevent tteir being supplied with drink in a well-conducted hotel, to obtain their two-gallon keg of beer. The young fellows combine in. parties of six and eight,, each contributing Jiis sharo to the common fund. In the afternoon, tho eldest of the party buys a keg and secretes it in one of tho town .reserves, or .takes'it to a orib, which signifies a room or rconis < where the young fellows gather for amusement. On tiro evenings of those daya on which a beg is bought disgraceful Moacfl are enacted, and evil .practices are performed. Tho most sinister featnro of it all is that the incoming o£ the two-gallon keg has engendered tho custom, of drinking beer among the youths. This oustom will g'fow info a habit, which will devolop into a vice. Such conditions do not prevail in a well-regulated liconsed town. In short, no-liconso is striking at the very foundation of the_ moral integrity of tho youth of inveroargill. And were no-licenso to be enforced in Dunedin its concomitant evil—the twcwrallan keg—would work it;: malevolent influence among the youth of this sity. Ear this reason alone, thoparents • of Dunedlin will weigh carefully fchoin ■ views before unwisely deciding in favour'of an issue which can only have one cffect. I am, etc., TniVEtMR.