NRS-16515 | Punishment Books [Big Creek Public School]

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Regulations under the Public Schools Act of 1866, adopted by the Council [of Education] 27 February 1867, regulated the punishment of children in schools by stipulating: “In the government of the pupils, all degrading and injurious punishments are to be avoided. The Teacher’s discipline must be mild but firm, his manner kindly, his demeanour cheerful and calculated to gain the confidence of his pupils, and his language marked by strict propriety. While he should overlook no offence, his aim should be to prevent the necessity for punishment by the improvement of the offender.”

In relation to corporal punishment the regulations continue: “Corporal punishment should be inflicted in extreme cases only, and then as a last resource; and the teacher must keep a record of the time and place at which pupils were corporally chastised, the amount of such punishment and the nature of the offence.”

Uniform stationery soon evolved to enable compliance with these regulations. These punishment books are registers of all instances of corporal punishment administered to pupils. The information they detail includes: the pupil’s name; age; nature of offence; amount of punishment (i.e. number of strokes); the instrument of punishment (almost invariably the cane); the date of the punishment; and by whom the punishment was inflicted.

The present series spans the years of existence of three successive schools at Big Creek, Hilldale: the first Big Creek Public School, which operated from 1879 to 1937 (the volume held beginning its record in 1911); the Subsidised School which functioned from September, 1938 to May, 1940; and the second Big Creek Public School (subsequently Hilldale Public School), which ran from 1940 to 1968. It is noticeable that no punishments are recorded for the ten years from 1936 to 1946.