As early as the 1870s, corporal punishment had its critics. The Government wanted to limit its use in the state system, but Scotch said this would weaken teachers’ authority. As for alternative punishments, like detention after school hours, to deprive boys of outdoor exercise ‘is far more injurious to health, and, consequently, more truly cruel than a few strokes of a strap or cane’. ‘The fact is that the old Scottish tawse was most humane means ever used in school government.'”

William Littlejohn, Principal “‘He caned seldom and with reluctance, and was notably clement to maladjusted boys threatened with expulsion.'”