THRASHING OF BOY

Chronicle (Levin), 11 May 1946, Page 7

THRASHING OF BOY

FATHER FINED £10 NELSON, May IU. "I have 110 hesitation in concluding tliat tlie thrashing was exccssively severe," commented the Magistrate, Mr. Maunsell, in iniposing a hue of £lUf 011 Gcrald James Austin, of Tapawera, charged with assaulting his live-year-old son, Leon Gcrald Austin. "The boy's niisbehaviour that defendant complains of was making more or less trivial statements which were contrary to fact. Defendaut says -he j gave the boy from one ddxen to two dozen strokes with a- grape vine cutting eigliteen inches to two fcet long. This j vaguo calcuiation simply ineans that he 'did not count the strokes," said Mr. ! Maunsell. "Wheu Magistrates were | empowered by long standing law to order delinquent boys to be whipped, j the maximum sentencc prescribed was ! six strokes with the birch rod for boys | up to the agc of 12" years altliough they may have committed a .sej'ioqs .crime. x have eonsidered wliet'her inTu'isOnment should be imposed. There is this to be said fof'.-him: He did iI6t -flbg "the 'boy ! from slicer brutalitv. He acted in utter ' ignorani-e ol: a sonse of proportioii anu Ijudginent as to wheu a child sliould oe ! puuislied and to what extenl. The ease j is sbmewliat siniilar to another case I against a man in the saine district but t in that case the defendaut whipped the | child under directiou of a pastor of the j Conimonwealth Covenant Ghureli 1 of i which he was an adherent. Tlie pastor \s doctrine was that tlie scripture made a mandatory to whip children iu wliom a 1 fault is detected. Austin belongs to the j saine cliurch but lie denies his action was inspired by his religious creed. It may, therefore, be a coincidehce. " The charge against Austin resulted 1 from a report of the school inedical ofticer who found tlie boy's buttocks cx- ■ tensively bruised black and blue over a diameter of about cight iuches. Tlie ! boy had said he rcceived a hiding for telling libs. Defendaut told tlie Court j the boy was getting a liabit of telling lies.