The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. SATURDAY, NOV. 17, 1894.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 121, 17 November 1894, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. SATURDAY, NOV. 17, 1894.

FLOGGING YOUNG WOMEN. We claim in this age to be far more enlightened and humane than our predecessors of only half a centurj ago, but the basis of that claim is not of a very substantial character. During the early part of the century it w&6 a recognised mode of punishment both in the army and navy to flog the men for the most trivial offences against discipline, and the lawmakers and officers who " Accepted this condition of affairs "'were perfectly convinced in their own minds that the men who were thus degraded were none the worse as defenders of the honor of their country on the battlefield. But n change came over the minds of the people from whoso rauks were drawn the lawgivers, and officers, as well as the men who had to undergo this treatment and, much to the surprise and disgust of those who had become habituated to th« sight of men's backs being torn to pieces by the merciless " Cat-o'-nine-tails," the custom was abolished except in very extreme cases and under very exceptional circumstances. Then again when gatotting was commenced and became rife in England, as a last resource flogging was the punishment awarded on conviction — and the cowardly brutes who were guilty of this crime were so terror-stricken that it was abandoned as an alleged industry. In this case flogging unquestionably was beueticial and accomplished the desired end But in that of our gallant soldiers and sailors it was needless, and but a barbarous custom perpetuated from a barbarous age, Only men, how ever, were dealt with in this way as a rule, although the punishment of flogging at the trial of a cart was often inflicted on women for theft, vagrancy, or similar offences against the bloodthirsty laws of tho time whore the " i ocal authorities " were entrusted with unrestrained power to carry them out. We hoped, ia our ignorance, that the beautiful land of New Zealand would never be stained by similar outrages, but we find that in North Canterbury, which claims to be one of the most cultured settlements in the colony, the Education Board, in order to maintain discipline among the female echolars, intends to authorise the corporal punishment of girls above the age of twelve years. That is to say the sapient members of that body intend to revive among young women— for that is what it means— a pnnishment which was years ago abandoned as too brutal to be inflicted even on men who, from the nature of their occupations, were strong enough to bear it. Of course we quite understand that the modes will be different — this we say ip all charity— but we most emphatically declart that if parents are weak enough to allow their daughters to be submitted to such degradation, they are unworthy to live and have their being in a civilized land.