HEADMASTER SUED FOR FLOGGING BOY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 47, 18 May 1927, Page 3

HEADMASTER SUED FOR FLOGGING BOY

COURT HELD BEATING TO BE NATURAL OUTCOME OF DEFIANCE OF AUTHORITY

(Special to THE SUN.) ELTHAM, To-day.

In delivering judgment in tlie case of John Borrie v. James Nairn, Manaia State School headmaster, in which Borrie’s son, Malcolm, was flogged, Mr. R. W. Tate, S.M., at the Eltham Magistrate’s Court yesterday afternoon, said the boy was healthy and of good physique. He was characterised by the teacher as stubborn. It was alleged the headmaster struck the boy’s head. Evidence showed that the marks on the head were not caused by the strap but were received in a scuffle with another boy before the bell rang. No doubt the schoolmaster had a legal right to administer corporal punishment, and in the magistrate’s opinion the flogging was reasonable and justified. Mr. Tate said: “I cannot refrain from saying that some of the evidence I have heard convinces me that the boy lives in an atmosphere of disrespect to his headmaster. His defiance of the constituted authority of his little world was the natural result of that atmosphere, and a flogging sooner or later was a natural consequence if the school discipline were to be maintained.” The information was dismissed with costs to the defendant.