GOLDEN YOUTHS,

Timaru Herald, Volume L, Issue 4822, 19 April 1890, Page 3

GOLDEN YOUTHS,

Among tho visitors to our shores during the past Exhibition season, caya tho Dunedin Herald, a? well as many previous years, there havo baen n number of what havo bcon called m tho slang phraseology of the day ' golden ' youths. We adopt and use the phraso at present", m tho senao of meaning those young men of the ages of from 18 to 2B who aro posscascd of largo iner.ns, varying from miiny thousanda to many hundreds of thousands of pounds, wbo aro (ravelling round tho gglueo u e with somo dim fantastic notion m their minds, or m tho minds of Ihoir parents and guardians, that such a process ia likely to makotbem wieor. Tho Benzons, Coatos, Basses, Allsops, who have come here from time to time, boaßt no long lino of ancoftry whose virtues by a polito hypothosis they may bo supposed to inherit. Their natnea muy, indeed, bo familiar on ft piece of* calico, a beor bottle, or a bar of soap, but their claims to fame aro chiefly that their fathers, uncle", or grandfathers havo rande a heap of money. A fair sprinkling of thorn are fools, pure and simple; but not a few of them seem well meaning, intelligent young men, whose great fault is that they havo not been compolled (o industry by luck of means. They loaf round tho bar-room of tho Grnnd Hotel or Wains', conaumo an intolerablo quantity of tho best of good drink, aro invited to tho houses of the local aristocratic leaders, drivo a tandem out to tho Taieri or Blueskin, and leave us nfter a month or two'a 6ojourn little wiaor and no moro foolish than whon they enmo hero. For tho moat part they regard our hard working colonial existence hero with a courteously veiled contompt, einco they inevitably contrast it with the surroundings to which they have been used, m their generation at least, at Home. Tho hard-working mechanic as he ploda to and fro on his daily task here, the merchant, clerk or profeseional man m our midst, regards thceo visitors with atraneoly mingled feelings — jealousy for what they have got, contompt for what thoy are, almost hatred for thorn as representing the differenco of mcn'B lota. But beneath all theso feelings, easily arousod and Boon forgotten, there is growing up horo a strong and determined eentimont that tho perpot.uiition of euch inequalities is bad for the individual, bud for tho race, and worst of all for the common-woalth. Can anyono doubt that the aggregation of wealth m tho hands of those who have not had tho brains to cam it and tho resolution to loop it, but who havo como into possession of it by tho moro accident of birth, ia an affront not only to common sonse, but a ahamo and a disgrace to our common legislation ?