The Man With The Syringe.

Observer, Volume XIV, Issue 784, 13 January 1894, Page 3

The Man With The Syringe.

A Wellington magistrate, in passing sentence on a larrikin a short time ago, remarked that he was determined to put down ' pnshes ' which threatened to become as great a curse to New Zealand as they were in Australia. Some people considered that that magistrate was taking an exaggerated view of the larrikin evil. And possibly he was. We have not yet heard of a man being deliberately kicked to death by hoodlums, aknoßt at his own door. But larrikinism is far too pronoanoed, even in this colony. Take the oase of the ruffian who is going about the streets of this city wantonly destroying the dresses of ladies by throwing upon

them some corrosive red fluid, the effect of which is to utterly ruin the apparel it touches.

Bat a few days ago a respectable young girl, whose hard-earned savings had been invested in the purchase of a silk dresshad the garment— worn for the first time — completely Bpoiled in this way. That happened in Queen-street. Since then a Thames girl has experienced the same treatment. Walking in Pitt-street the other evening she suddenly discovered her dress dripping with the destructive red fluid. In this case the stuff had evidently been discharged from a syringe. And the hoodlum that used that syringe is still at large. The police are yet awaiting a ' clue.' If these outrages had occurred in an American town the young fellows of the community would have formed themselves into a vigilance committee ere this, and the gentleman who amuses himself by indulging in conduct infinitely meaner than theft would speedily have been ' nabbed ' and taught a lesson he was not likely to forget in a hurry. I trust that for the credit of the city, and as a check to the spread of larrikinism, which is becoming far too prevalent in Auckland, the ruffian of the syringe will speedily make the acquaintance of Mr Northcrof t.