SMACKING PROBLEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17276, 27 September 1919, Page 2 (Supplement)

SMACKING PROBLEM.

PUNISHING BOYS AND GIRLS.

Should children be iims-cked? From the beginning of time people have held different views on this question. The world is divided into smackers and anti-smackers. Louis Carroll wrote : —

Speak roughly to your little boy, And hit him when he sneeze#; He only dooo it to annoy. Because lie knows it teases.

But what about little girls? Ought they to be whippedeven when growing into big girls? Mrs. Elizabeth White, a London County Council school teacher, has just successfully appealed against a fine of 40a, which was imposed on her for " unlawfully assaulting Annie I.hodes, who is 14 years old.

A physician who has a Government position in London stated that, from a medical point of view, corporal punishment should not be given to any gird of 14 years of age. °

" When a girl haa reached the age of 10," he said, " ail corporal punishment should cease, for after that age it ceases to serve as a method of correction to the child, and merely degrades her morally.

Hoys, who are little animals longer than are girls, can be whipped in moderation, or caned, up to the age of 14. .mart slapping is sometimes the best punishment that can bo given to small children.