THE "DANGEROUS" BICYCLE AGE

Wanganui Chronicle, 23 April 1949, Page 9

THE "DANGEROUS" BICYCLE AGE

Warning To Girls' College Pupils And Parents 50 Years Ago

The jubile’e of the Wanganui Girls’ 1 College Old Girls' Association, which i is taking place early next month, will ; provide a time for reminiscences.< Some interesting records of the past,; have been read agtvn, and compari-j sons made. 11 As far back as 1899. the then head-!] mistress of the col’ege. Miss Fraser J ( so .meed a note oi wai rang about 1 xoung girls being allowed too much 1 Lberty. In an article published in the! •» hr ol magazine. The Adastrian,” aad;: addressed mainly io parents, Miss 1 Fraser blamed the advent of the bi- i i cycle for a good deal of the trouble, jt “I wish to use this opportunity and i use it to turn public opinion to the A duty of crushing an evil that is young;" ac yet, but very likely to grow,” MiissL Fraser stated. “Public opinion can do' 1 almost anything, and I wish to stir 1 up the Wanganui mothers as a whole! io discountenance tne unwise liberty’! and the too great indulgence in frivol-1 < ous amusement granted to some ofjs the girls. I know 1. am speaking |i against the whole spirit of the age,it but it is a bad spirit and we must 1 ] strive to ‘ exorcise it. i j “I love to see tne girls enjoying ! themselves in simple amusements that, i are suitable to their age and that t leave no pain or sting behind. I grieve j tc hear of their taking part in imita- i tion grown-up p<asures that leave i behind them weariness and distaste 1 for all that is simple and girlish. I < have been amazed when giving small 1 1 entertainments here to find that par-' ents have made no provision for the i safe escort of their girls through the i streets at half-past nine at night. !« “It is always a gieat pleasure to see < girls, as most of our girls do as yet. 1 taking their pleasures by then mo- 1

thers’ side and a pitiiui sight to see the free-and-easy air ol the tew who are left to their own devices. Unless on definite business a girl ought to be at home, and not on the street. If she goes out for the sake of exercise the Avenue is not the most suitable place for taking it and there is no real exercise in loitering about gossiping with anyone idle enough to waste time “I blame the advent of the bicycle a good deal for the fault just made. It is easy to slip along the Avenue half a dozen times in the course of the afternoon and to find a good excuse for each journey, and we do not want our girls to oe spoken of as ‘That girl is always to be seen in the Avenu'e.’ If a girl spends much of her time in the street she sooner or later will acquire the manners of the street. “The evils I have mentioned are not any worse in Wanganui than in any other town-j-not nearly as bad as in some. I ask all mothers to be strict in not allowing tneir daughters to copy the habits of the girls I refer to. I shall do my pari, in punishing most severely any unbecoming conduct on the street. The fact ol the school being a boarding school forces me to take a more comprehensive vtew of my duty than is customary in day schools. Parents at a distance trust us with their daughters, and I cannot be so untrue to the trust as not to strive to kill any inffi’.ence that may ' bring th’em harm. ! “Our colony is yet in the making and it is the strict parents who train their children to put duty before pleasure and to take life with happy earnestness and not with frivolity that will help to make New Zealand great.”