In the early eighteen hundreds the Australian penal statements were the scene of floggings of so severe a nature as to rival, for sheer savagery the worst that were inflicted in England during the sixteenth century, or in the southern State of America during the days of slavery. In the United States of America whipping was a favourite seventeenth century punishment for various offences, and both male and female culprits came under the lash. Of all the civilized nations, Russia may be considered to be the one which not only used the 'whip unmercifully, but also as the nation which continued to use it longer by far and for a greater variety of crimes than did any other. Next to Russia, for sheer love or whipping comes China and little less formidable than the Russian knout is the Chinese rod of split bamboo. The sharp edges of the bamboo cut into the fresh inflicting terrible lacerations. Little wonder that deaths as a result of these floggings, have been frequent and that those who escape this fate are often so terribly mutilated that they remain crippled for the rest of their lives. The History of Corporal Punishment by G.R. Scott (1948) pages 39 to 56).

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