MAGISTERIAL BRUTALITY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2342, 18 September 1880, Page 2

MAGISTERIAL BRUTALITY.

The “Southland News” has the following One of the lads 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 Cotterill. Whether the illness was caused by the whipping or by some other cause, we arc 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 home, but this might have been caused more by excitement and terror than by actual pain. Be this as it may, the circumstances 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 T. Turnbull and J. W. Mitchell, who adjudicated in the case. “ Forty - eight hours’ imprisonment

and a good flogging” was their lecision, and, at first sight, nut a bad me. But then “ a good Hogging ”is an uncertain quantity, depending entirely upon the temper, disposition and physique of the giver. What some people would consider ‘‘ a good Hogging” 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 very much inclined to think that ■Justices would do well to avoid dealing with cases involving corporal punishment—they would be better left to the stipendiary magistrate.