Mexborough & Swinton Times, March 31
Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child
Batch of Youthful Offenders from Conisboro´
A number of young Conisborough schoolboys were summoned at the Doncaster Police Court, on Wednesday for a series of robberies from shops in the neighbourhood, and Mr. E. L. Bingham, who presided, addressing the parents at the close of the case said it appeared that they did not use the rod sufficiently. “This district” he said “was getting notorious for petty thefts of this description, and it had got to be stopped either in the home or in the court. If the parents could not stop it then the court would try”.
Supt. A. J. Minty said this kind of offence had been going on for a considerable time, and business people had been very much troubled.
In one case, Mr. J. Drabble, a wholesale confectioner, had missed fifteen bottles of sweets, while fifteen others had been broken. Entrance had been obtained through a window which overlooked Morley Place School yard. In another case three boys had been concerned in stealing four tins of powder from the shop of Reginald Troughton, Chemist.
Several boys had many charges against them, and three were admitted by their parents to be out of control.
One boy it was said, had been turned away from school several months ago, a statement which drew from the chairman (Mr. E. L. Bingham), the remark that it was a very irregular proceeding.
The three boys mentioned were remanded with a view to being sent to an industrial school, and the others were bound over, and placed under the care of the Probation Officer.
The Chairman added that a sound and judicious thrashing was sometimes a good thing: “I think we are getting a little too squeamish in these days” he added.