When I was in primary level at my school, not far out from the city of Melbourne in Australia, we boys - all of us about 11 years old - discovered the rumour about the Headmaster's Cane. The rumour was it was a very special Cane made to his special design, two very flexible rods of Malacca bamboo fixed together at the handle end and about two inches apart at the boy's end. It was said to leave two extremely painful ridged welts at each stroke. The only comfort junior boys could claim was that it was only used on older boys in the senior part of the school. The junior school principal administered The Cane and it was well known to be only an ordinary single rod - it hurt like hell even though we were always clad in our quite thick school uniform short trousers and of course underpants as well.
Melbourne is quite a large city and is serviced by trams and an extensive electric railway system. Some boys used this railway system to and from school. A group of four boys in my class caught the same train every day. They were all close friends and were all villains and often in trouble. This story came about as a result of these four boys committing serious vandalism in their train carriage. With their pocket knives they ripped open the padded seats of the carriage. Unfortunately for them there was an adult also in the carriage who recognised the school uniform and in fact one of the boys and reported the fact to Railway Security.
The next day this particular boy was summoned to the Principal's study. He was threatened with immediate expulsion if did not reveal the names of the other boys. This was a dreadful thing - to be expelled from this very prestigious school was a shame not only for the boy, but for his whole family. The consequences would not stop there either, angry Fathers would certainly require trousers to be taken down as a result. The boy confessed, was told to return to his classroom and would later hear again from the Principal. The other boys were summoned and all confessed to the crimes, they also were sent back to the classroom.
It must be assumed here that the junior school Principal then consulted with the school Headmaster, the result being all the boys were summoned once again to the Principal's study and must have been astonished and not a little apprehensive to find the "Big School Headmaster" there. The lecture they received from him reduced them all to tears, and to this I can personally attest having been similarly reduced to tears myself at the age of 15 and only narrowly escaped a Caning at senior school. They were all promised six of the best, to be administered the next day. Unheard of at junior school, a caning was rarely more than one or two strokes, the thought of six must have felt like the end of the world. They were told their parents would be told and no doubt be waiting for them when they got home.
After it was all over it was discovered two of the boys certainly found their parents waiting and that night climbed into bed with very sore bottoms indeed - suitably prepared for the next day. The other two boys had more sympathetic parents who thought six of the best would be sufficient - one of them however, it was found out later, was undressed and locked naked in an outside lavatory until bedtime.
They were summoned to the Principal's study during the first period of the day and were absent for about 20 minutes. They returned in a group, one in tears and rubbing his bottom still (he was one of the boys who had received a hiding the night before, his Father had used a Cane and had given him 12 - on the bare bottom too), the others stoic and making out nothing much had happened. They sat however, with particular care. Later we other boys heard the full story.
They had to queue up outside the study. One at a time they were admitted after the previous boy had limped out, buttoning up his shorts - all in tears at this time. Inside they found the Big School Headmaster with that fabulous double Cane. Each were told they would receive the Caning with their pants off, on their underpants. Each boy had to take off his pants completely and hand the garment to the junior school Principal who held it until the Headmaster had finished. We all wondered about the two boys who received thrashings from their Fathers, surely the Headmaster would see the marks shining through their thin little underpants, he made no comment however and lashed the terrible double Cane down for the stipulated six as hard as he could. I was not a particular friend of any of the boys involved so was not granted the privilege of seeing their bottoms later that day, something I have regretted to this very day some 60 years later.