NRS-16741 | Punishment Books [Dalwood 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 cases in which corporal punishment was given to pupils. The information it details includes: the pupil’s name; age; nature of offence; amount of punishment (i.e. number of strokes); instrument of punishment (normally the cane); the date of the punishment; and by whom the punishment was inflicted. Later volumes substitute the heading “By whom sent” for “Instrument of Punishment.”

The second volume in the series is signed by successive Inspectors as having been viewed in 1965, 1967 and 1969, but it records only one instance of corporal punishment during this period, dated to March, 1969. The record is supplemented by two loose sheets of paper inserted in the first volume, which add details of the offences of some of the pupils who received punishment during the period 1928-1930.