THE ROPE'S END.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1733, 25 April 1913, Page 5

THE ROPE'S END.

REPORT OF AMOKURA INQUIRY

NO CRUELTY PROVED. CORPORAL PUNISHMENT TO BE • RETAINED. . llio following report of tlio inquiry recently held by tlio Marino Department into charges of cruelty in -tJ )e control of tlio boys on tho Amokura by their officers as been issued by tlio Acting-Minister I ' U Lp[ : " V lO (the ir °"- D - Bull) iiioUepartmtntal.inquiry !>y -Mr. Allien' K Hf oc " et '' l,,y °'i llirill e> lias been (in- i ■' acass3 j'> of tlio Crown Law Olhce, being present throughout. Full opportunity was given to anyone who desired to bo heard, and many of the boys, sis well as fomo of tho public, gave evidence. I am satisfied that all the informalon lioccssji'y to enable tho Government to deal with tho matter has been obtained, aiiiL that no good end would bo served oj; a 1 urther investigation. Thero is no authority for tho Government, any more than for any other person or body, to hold what has been called « public inquiry' except through a Koyal Commission, Tho purposes of a ltoyal Commission are to obtain evidence of the facts and to suggest remedies. Tho Government has tho evidence, and docs not require suggestions as to tho course it should adopt., _orpw.il punishment has beou administered tor serious bit'eiices .since the iiin7 l,ll °nn AVns es^ iu the year IJO7. the regulations have always'lei't the matter ot punisliment to the discretion ot the commander of tho Amokura. Corporal punishment, will not bo abolishsd us tho ultimate penalty for serious uffences or for repeated misconduct. It has hitherto been administered with a lope's Piul on the boys' buttocks, tho limit iu most cases being six strokes, theimaximum being twelve; Tho evidence has. disproved tho assertion that cruelly or unduo seventy has been exercised. Tho bovs no doubt bear the marks for some days) and 111 some very few cases tho skin has been slightly broken, but tilers is 110 instance v? , "ei'Jij incapacitated from immediately returning to work after the pum' ishmont. it. is probablo that tho boys themselves, like most other boys, would prefer corporal punishment to Wio minor penalties of detention and disrating which aro imposed for ordinary offences, and this may have led to a more frequent application of the rope's end than was necessary for the,enforcement of discipline on beard. Ao punishment .has ill liny caso ■ Men ordered by any other than tho captain, and in every caso of corporal punishment the captain himself has inflicted it. 1

"It is the intention of tho Government by regulations to prescribe more particujarly ilio for which corporal punishment may l>e inflicted, and (as in tho case of the Education Department) to prescribe the nat'ire of the instrument of punishment, and tho number of strokes Hint nny be inflictf-1. It is also" the intention of ihe Government to diicct that in future corporal punishment shall not be inflicted.in the presence of tho whole ship's company us heretofore, but in tho presence of one or two only. "As !o (he other complaints mnde, they were nil completely disproved, except that of tho somewhat circumscribed accommodation, which, is due to the small tonnage of the vessel. If cither House cf Parliament desires to consider tho Departmental report, the report will b'e laid on the fable after tho meeting ot' Parliament."