THE PUNISHMENT OF CHILDREN.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3005, 11 February 1881, Page 3

THE PUNISHMENT OF CHILDREN.

—This subject is attracting attention in England afc the present time, and is worthy of the attention of the authorities here in regard to the smaller class of ("larrikins." The London Observer says : —" Sir William Harcourt seems not at all unlikely to signalise his tenure of the seals of the Home Offict by one or two very useful reforms. He has clearly taken up tho right line with

regard to those naughty little boys who persist in breaking windows, stoning cats, stealing apples, letting off lire works in the street, cutting their names on doors, breaking shrubs and plants, and otherwiso rendering themselves generally obnoxious. The rule hitherto had been to send offenders to prison for a limited period. But, as Sir William forcibly observes, fchey come out gaol-birds, with their whole future permanently injured, if not absolutely ruined. What, then, are we to do with them ? Humanitarianism, to say nothing of sentiment, is averse to tho one proper punishment, a good sound flogging carefully administered so as to inflict the maximum of physical pain and afc the same time to cause no permanent physical injury, The tide of popular feeling, however, is opposed to corporal punishment in any shape, and, indeed, a flogging is a penalty almost as degrading as a term of imprisonment. It has been decided that the parents of these little sinners should be fined, unless, in the alternative, they offer security for the good conduct of the iirchin for a month or two in the future, and pledge themselves to give him a good beating as soon as tbey get hold or him Sir William Harcourt, on consideration of all methods, has found out one which he thinks the best of all. Ho would have a sort of penal establishment attached to every industrial school, where the food should be coarse in quality, and limifcnd in quantity, and the discipline severe. He would submit juvenile offenders to such a school for a week or two, and ifc should be understood that they leave ifc with no criminal taint upon them. The proposal is a simple one, and it is to be hoped that the Home Secretary may see bis way to bring it into effect.