The Fielding Star. Published Daily. MonDAY, APRIL 2, 1894. On Flogging.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 277, 2 April 1894, Page 2

The Fielding Star. Published Daily. MonDAY, APRIL 2, 1894. On Flogging.

Those who remember the absolute authority of masters in Scottish schools, and their unlimited power to inflict corporal punishment will be pleased, j yet amused, to learn the •' tawse," that softest and mildest instrument of flagellation, is to be introduced to the state scholars in New Zealand. Recipients of the attention cf the Domine, wielding in his strong right hand the pungent leather for the first time, remember the fear then inspired, but they also recall to mind the fact that after a very few applications the skin or hide ultimately becomes indurated, and, therefore, almost as callous as the leather of the tawse itself. Having been educated in the same manner himself, the good Domine knew when the youngsters had passed from tenderness to toughness, and then he put aside the tawse and called into requisition a long leathern strap about the thickness and pliability of an ordinary stirrup leather, which, if he was an enthusiast in his profession, he hardened at the extreme end by holding it in the fire for a few seconds. This was also very effective, especially when applied to the extended hands, because sometimes the palms would puff up and swell in a manner which reflected infinite credit on the muscular development of the master, and honor on the pluck and* hardihood of the scholar. A lad who could take a couple of dozen strokes without a murmur was one to be respected. But even this soon ceased to be effective and had to give place to the cane, the sweetest and best. There was credit to be gained by patiently submitting to the tawse, and honor in standing up manfully to bear the stings of the strap ; but when one was firmly held by the scruff of the neck while the cane was laid on with rapidity and vigour, reaching every part of the body, curling and turning round the limbs, inflicting a lasting bruise as it were, in two or three places at a time, no lad was either a hero to himself or anybody else at such a moment. The cane made the weather uncommonly warm while it lasted. Whether all this flogging did any good or not was no great matter ; the boys looked upon it as a natural consequence of having to go to school, while the masters flogged because they had been flogged themselves and it was their turn to be the aggressors, and therefore they liked it. To show how things change. If a New Zealand father, Scotch or not, saw his Bon thrashed as he himself had been thrashed in the " good old days " — he would pound that master into a mummy, or ruin him in a law suit. Men in New Zealand may, and they generally do, look back with pride on the sufferings they went through in their youth, but they have no intention of allowing their own children to pass through similar ordeals.