The Evening Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News. SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1875.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1665, 19 June 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News.

SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1875.

Tot the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong tliat needs resistaac*, Var the fiture In the distance, __. tilt f tod tlikt we can da.

The recent case of flogging in a school in Wellington, to which frequent reference has been made in telegrams published in our columns, has evidently attracted considerable attention, and given rise to varied comment. In our southern files to hand, we have details of the trial, and from what came to light, we confess we have no particular sympathy with the maudlin sentimentalis'm that has been indulged by many whose parental feelings appear to have been rudely shocked by the occurrence. It appears that the caning inflicted by Mr Pilkington, the assistant teacher, was really of a very severe kind. Medical testimony showed " twenty one marks of extravasated- blood under the skin. In one place the skin was broken a9 if there had been repeated blows on that particular spot." About three dozen blows altogether, with a cane of ordinary size— •'the size of the little finger"—appear to have been inflicted on the back, and shoulders, and the lad, about eleven years old, had clearly got a~caning to remember. But then there was the other side of the case. It appears there had been lurking rebeJlion in .he school; a few of the boys had on a former occasion " taken charge of the school," this lad, .Johns, being clearly a ringleader, and a fresh outbreak was at any time expected. On the head master, Mr Mowbray, going from the school for a day, and comr mitting the charge to Mr Pilkington, the probabilities of the outbreak had been considered between them, and instructions for putting down rebellion given. It is evident, also, that the lad deliberately set himself to provoke the encounter, and expressed his intention of _o misconducting himself as to be "sentout" on the floor, which appears to be the school jargou for standing out of class to be punished. As he intended; his misconduct compelled the teacher to?;call; him out, and he was ordered to hold out his hand,-: which he' refused.; Mr Pilkington then came down! across his should era with the canej when the hopeful called out/ "You won't hit me again, lan key !" and attempted to kick his,teacher. Now it appears that the teacher is tall in figure, and somewhat gaunt withal, and the term "lankey" went like iron into his soul, and we do think that when a man whose coporeal anatomy consists of little but skin and bone, is called "lankey" by a rebellious boy, he is to be forgiven if he feels wrathful, at that boy. And the tall thin man was wrathful, and hit that boy again and again, and then the boy tried to "shy" an ink-bottle at the teacher's head, and the teacher hit him again and again, and again. Well it may have been wrong, but by all the saints in the Calender il we were thin «nd long, and i

boy called us "Lankey," and kicked our shins, and shied an ink-bottle at our head, #c would do as Mr Pilkington did, no matter what "Addison on Torts" might say. Tbe case was altogether an exceptional case, and the conduct of the boy touch that hardly any amount of caning would have been too much for him. The teacher however had made himself amenable to law, and was fined 20_. and costs, —a mitigated penalty in consequence of the provocation given ; but the fine and costs were promptly subscribed and paid by persons who felt that it was not in human nature to do otherwise than Mr. Pilkington had done. It is therefore riot a case that beara particularly on the question of corporal punishment in ordinary school discipline. It is widely different from the practice which sometimes prevails of trying to hammer knowledge into boys' heads, by beating them for errors in preparation or in answering, a practice which may with safety be stated to be in exact proportion with the inefficiency of the teacher and bis unfitness for guiding the youthful intellect. For disobedience or mischief or misconduct generally, the birch is often useful if not necessary, and a very old and reliable authority teils us that he that spareth the rod hateth the child ; but a teacher who cannot enlist the sympathies of boys, and lead them, through love of learning, to learn, and who from indolence or inability to lead, adopts the readier method of driving by blows and fear, should be regarded as having mistaken his profession ; and we believe that through such blundering many a youthful intellect of bright promise has been stupified and turned into that of a dullard and a dunce for life. That very buoyancy of spirit which God has given to boys is the most precious aid to progress in the acquisition of knowledge, and the teacher who repels it, and from indolence or lack of sympathy or from bad temper, proceeds to biutalise his boys by corporal punishment and the influence of fear, and then hopes to drive learning into their heads by blows, is a curse to the school-room. Frankness, candour, and manliuess disappear under such discipline, and deception, sneaking, cowardice, and vice grow up under the baleful influence ; while learning, for which the young mind has as natural a craving as the body has for fresh air and fresh sceues and food itself, becomes repulsive, and as little likely to build up the intellectual faculties, as forced and uncongenial food is to Assimilate itself to the scstem and give bodily strength. Mr. Pilkington met with sympathy and but nominal punishment, because the young urchin was deliberately and wilfully wicked and insubordinate ; but we venture to Gay that if this sevcro punish ment had arisen out of the common enough practice of beating boys for inability to say their lessons, especially as punishment at the hands of assistant teachers is entirely and utterly contrary to law —a legal fac; wbich came out in the trial—neither tho tender mercy of the Bench nor the sympathy of the public would have saved Mr. Pilkington from several months' imprisonment.