The News,
Adelaide, 18 May 1956
Vicious juveniles 'should
be caned'
Caning of vicious juvenile
delinquents was warranted, the Children's Welfare Department senior probation
officer, Miss M.J. Curtis, said today.
She said
it could be effective both with the offender and the parents.
Today
teenagers and a few younger children were doing malicious damage to private
property, including motor vehicles.
Moral
standards were at an extremely low level.
Many
parents considered their own pleasures and interests, completely ignoring the
child's need and right for spiritual and moral training and example.
Type of child
These
parents so often considered their job done when the children were sent to
school to receive religious instruction.
"So long as these conditions last we will have vicious
delinquents," Miss Curtis said.
"In
my opinion only this type of child should receive corporal punishment, but only
when medical opinion is given that the offender is physically able to take
it."
Truth, Adelaide, 19 May 1956
"Old-Fashioned Remedy": S.M.
Boys Get The
Cane
"THE
old-fashioned remedy for irresponsible vandalism was a good sound
whipping," Mr. Scales said in Adelaide Juvenile Court the other day.
He ordered eight strokes of the
cane to each of two youths charged with wilful damage.
The boys
had admitted damaging, with shots from .22 rifles, the following: 31 panes of
glass, 1 Tank, 1 milk can, 1 windmill tail fin, 1
copper flue, 3 petrol cans, and 1 oil drum.
Uninhabited
Prosecuting,
Mr. G.H. Huffa told the court the offence had been
committed in and around an uninhabited farm near Murray Bridge on Easter
weekend.
The boys
had admitted to police firing about 250 shots around the farmhouse and a barn.
Mr. Huffa said the boys had reported to the Murray Bridge
police that the damage had already been done when they had first arrived there
in an effort to avoid blame on themselves.
The
farmhouse had been broken into and an antique clock damaged. The glass dome
which covered it had been smashed with a bullet.
Smashed
The 31
panes of glass had been smashed on the side of the barn, Mr. Huffa continued.
When
questioned by police, the boys had admitted the damage, as stated in the
charge, amounting to about £60.
Further
damage amounting to about £20 had been denied by the youths and they were not
charged with it.
"When
interviewed by police, one of the boys said: 'It was just one of those
things'," Mr. Huffa added.
"Rainy Day"
Mr. C.W.
Reeves (for the boys) told the court there was no reasonable explanation for
the offence.
"It
was a rainy day and there was no rabbit shooting," he said.
The
old-fashioned remedy for irresponsible vandalism was a good sound
whipping," Mr. Scales replied.
He
adjourned the case for a week so that the boys
could each be given eight strokes of the cane.
Truth,
Sydney, 20 May 1956
Letters
Cane urged for young
offenders
Congratulations
to the South Australia magistrate who recently ordered canings for two
16-years-old youths for illegally using cars.
I
understand their fathers gave them six strokes across the bare buttocks in the
presence of a policeman.
Why could
not a similar method be adopted in N.S.W. for juvenile offenders?
Magistrates
should have power to order canings (not brutal whippings or birchings,
which only embitter), for offenders under 18 -- both girls and boys.
These
could be administered by a police officer or policewoman immediately after
court proceedings, and offender then released in the custody of his or her
parents.
The
humiliation of a caning on the bare buttocks would be an added punishment and
it would leave nothing to boast about.
What
about it, Attorney-General?
JAMES
PEERS
Armidale.
Truth,
Adelaide, 22 May 1956
Youths whipped
Parents Give Eight Strokes
TWO
youths were each given eight strokes of the cane in their homes this week under
police supervision.
The caning had been ordered by Mr. Scales S.M.
after the youths had pleaded guilty in the Adelaide Juvenile Court
last week to
irresponsible vandalism with a rifle at a farm near Murray Bridge recently.
The
instrument of punishment was a stout four-foot cane borrowed from the Adelaide
police barracks, because, according to a police officer, "all schools are
closed for the holidays."
Police
officer appointed by Mr. Scales to supervise the whippings, C.I.B. veteran
Det.-Sgt. Bob Huie, arrived
in a police car at 7.20 p.m. outside the western suburbs home of the stepfather
of one of the youths, aged 17.
The
youth, who has allegedly refused to live with his stepfather since his mother
remarried, had arrived alone in a taxi at 7.10 p.m.
The
youth, big shouldered and tall for his age, entered
the home unsmiling and spoke briefly to his weeping mother and his stocky
stepfather.
When Det.
Huie told the youth to bend over a bed, the youth's
mother ran sobbing from the room.
Closely
watched by the detective, the stepfather raised the cane then brought it down
with a crack that could be heard in the street.
The youth
winced with pain, but made no sound as the cane lashed across his buttocks
eight times with a one second interval between each blow.
After the
thrashing Det. Huie examined the youth for injuries.
Later, in
conversation with Det. Huie, the youth assured the
detective that he would "never do anything to lead him into the same
position again."
At 8.p.m.
Det. Huie left for the home of the second youth, aged
15, where he arrived with his cane at 8.10.
"Hasn't Eaten"
Earlier
the boy's mother told Truth: "He hasn't eaten a thing all day thinking of
what is to come."
This
youth, smaller and slighter than his companion, received his punishment bending
over a lounge in a home in the shadow of a huge industrial undertaking.
As in the
first case this boy's mother also refused to witness the thrashing and left the
room.
After the
boy had been caned by his father, who, Det. Huie
said, "knew his job," he then told the detective: "This is the
first and last time this will ever happen to me."
Det. Huie later told Truth: "It will hurt these boys to sit
down for a time, but I am really confident they will not come before the courts
again."
Mr.
Scales was furnished with a report by Det. Huie on
the whippings.
Heard Report
FOOTNOTE:
Two quiet and restrained youths appeared before Mr. Scales the following
morning with their hair well brushed and their ties as straight as the narrow
path.
After he
had listened to Det. Huie's report of the thrashing
in chambers, Mr. Scales emerged to tell the youths, one of whom was accompanied
by his mother and the other by both parents, that as far as he was concerned he
was satisfied with the police officer's report.
"It
seems to me you have learned your lesson," added Mr. Scales, to which both
youths replied in unison: "Yes, sir!"
The
magistrate then dismissed the case against both boys.