Guide to canings at school pains MP

We have already met Eric Huntingdon, the man who sold canes from his small shop in Bognor Regis, Sussex. In 1968 he made national news in Britain when a Member of Parliament questioned the Minister of Education in Parliament about his activities. The full leaflet mentioned is here.

A guide on canings at

school pains an MP

 SOME hints on caning are on their way to Education Minister Edward Short.

They are in a sales leaflet written by Mr. Eric Huntingdon and his wife Margaret, who sell flexible North Borneo canes from their shop at Snook’s Corner, Bognor Regis, Sussex.

The canes are in three sizes according to the age of the child to be whacked and the Huntingdons estimate they have sold 4,000 to headmasters and parents.

The leaflet – which has been sent to Mr. Short by Mr. Gwilym Roberts, Labour MP for South Bedfordshire – includes these hints on caning:

Bare

“We do not advocate the use of the cane on bare flesh. Pants afford the modesty a child is entitled to.

“There could be two canes, one on show and the other locked away in case the child damages or destroys the cane on view. We suggest that six of the best would be sufficient in the majority of cases.”

Mr. Roberts said yesterday [24 October 1968]: “There are obvious dangers if advice comes from leaflets of this type.

“I am tabling a Commons question to Mr. Short, asking for official guidance on the use of corporal punishment in schools.”

Temper

Mr. Huntingdon, 40, father of two small boys, said: “If a parent loses his temper, then the first weapon to hand is likely to be used – anything from a riding crop to a stair rod.

“It is better if a parent has a cane, and there is then no likelihood of a child being harmed.”

 

As published in the Daily Mirror, 25 October 1968.

Picture credit: The Sun, via Corpun


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