SKETCHES ITS COURT.

Saturday Advertiser, Issue 29, 29 January 1876, Page 13

SKETCHES ITS COURT.

BY WIDEAWAKE.

HI fares the town, to hastening ills a prey, Where roughs predominate and have their way.

This doggrel couplet was forcibly recalled to my memory recently by the appearance of a number of street Bedouins in Court for having displayed their delight at the exit of another year, by conduct simply blackguardly and outrageous. There exists in every respectable quarter of the globe a scum of society. These parasites are all treated as a genus under a special name. In the old country the designation “ roughs ” is applied, in France the expression gamin, in America “hoodkin,” in the Australasian Colonies “ larrikin,” and so on, for they are all of a feather, and regarded as pests whereever they exist. Melbourne ancT Sydney has beenover-run with them as with vermin ; and though the very severest chastisement has been inflicted, they continue to increase, and the police are often afraid to interfere. This surely shows the necessity of our Magistrates making the severest examples of them, while they are, comparatively speaking, in their infancy. Were it not for our Industrial School we might have the affliction with Melbourne.

A few rollicking roysterers at such a season of the year few would grumble at, but there is a limit to sky-larking, and one easily executed. When Dunedin scapegraces give vent to their unbounded feelings at the ushering in of another year by blocking up the principal thoroughfares, thereby stopping the traffic, and showering those horrid Chinese crackers indiscriminately among quiet, orderly people, it is time for the police to interfere. And when the guardians of the peace are battered with paper bags of flour, eggs, and other tokens of defiance, the public should assist them to bring the perpetrators to justice. The law is not so rigid lie re as to discard the old customs in rejoicing if carried on properly, and surely more fun could be had round the glare of a large bonfire on the outskirts of the town, where fireworks could be discharged ad- libitum without any danger being attached. The few hobble-de-hoys who were summoned for their unseemly rowdyism on New Year’s morn, merited the punishment meted out to them at the Police Court, and something worse. There is balm in Gilead, and if it is any consolation to those confirmed topers who periodically figure before the City Bench, three convictions against them in six months does not constitute them habitual drunkards. Our wiseacres who preside aljvays appear to be governed by statute penalties, often misinterpreting them, but never altogether ignoring them because totally inconsistent with their own ideas. If a broken-down inebriate comes before them, they listen to the woeful tale of the apprehending constable, who proves his bird to be a truant one indeed. Not content with squandering what little means he has upon drink, he pawns the family furniture and ill-treats his unfortunate wife and children in the bargain. Having been committed three times within the preceding six months, he is accordingly considered a fit subject for her Majesty’s Gaol, and forthwith removed thereto for a period of three months. Mr Pyke has taken up the cudgels on behalf of these unfortunate swipers, and actually refused to convict a man who had the three necessary sentences passed upon him. Although thus qualified according to statute law, prisoner was denied the shelter which would have been conducive to his welfare, because- “he was not always drinking,” The glorious uncertainties of the law are not always favorable. It may be reasonable to suppose that a man is not an habitual ” because he gets drunk three times within six months, but the question is, where to draw the line.

Of all the most obnoxious, disgusting, and unnatural of crimes, that of the criminal abuse of children is the worst, and when the culprit is an old, grey-haired man, it is rendered even more loathsome. Without desiring to parade such a subject before the public, I cannot help remarking upon the frequency of offences answering this description in Dunedin. It is beginning to be a serious question whether the matter is not one for legislation. The cat would, I doubt, have a better effect than the longest term of imprisonment, even with the additional severity of close confinement. An amusing comparison was mnde by a sailor who had been run into the Maclaggan Street lock-up the other night. Jock, after somewhat recovering himself, was heard by a fellow drunkard, soliloquising upon his position, when suddenly happening to peep through the aperture in his cell door, he exclaimed : “ Well, I’m blowed if it aint like board ship. You can see the land, but you can’t get to it.” Certain female notorieties whose unblushing effrontery has got them into many scrapes appear to be at a loss where to lay their heads. Up-rooted out of the city, they sought refuge in the environs, but the peaceful residents of Kensington object to this intrusion, and having petitioned the police against it, certain occupiers of houses “ frequented by persons having no lawful means of support,” have figured before the Court and gone away less in pocket. These

unfortunates, if they continue ,to carry on with the same degree of impropriety, will by and bye, find the outside world too small for them.