THE RECENT FLOGGING AT INVERCARGILL.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2048, 16 September 1880, Page 3

THE RECENT FLOGGING AT INVERCARGILL.

Referring to this case, the “Southland News ” has the following One of the lads recently sentenced to be whipped for poultry stealing has been seriously ill since receiving his punishment—so seriously as to require the most active medical treatment at the hands of Dr. Ootteroll. Whether the illness was caused by the whipping or some other cause wo are unable to say, but, as it was inflicted in the presence of the gaol surgeon, it must be presumed that no undue severity was used. The boy, however, is said to have fainted under the lash, and again on reaching homo, but this might have been caused more by excitement and terror than by actual pain. Bo this as it may, the circumstance should act as a caution for the future to Justices of the Peace not to pass such indefinite sentences as the one delivered by Messrs. J. Turnbull and J. W. Mitchell, who adjudicated in the case. “Forty-eight hours’ imprisonment and a good flogging ” was their decision, and, at first eight, not a bad one. But then “ a good flogging ” is an uncertain quantity, depending entirely upon the temper, disposition, and physique of the giver. What some people would consider “ a good flogging ’’ others might characterise as downright barbarity, and hence it is absolutely necessary that a limit should be fixed to the number of strokes or lashes. And we are verymuch inclined to think that Justices would do well to avoid dealing with cases involving corporal punishment—they would be tetter left to the stipendiary magistrate.