A SHOW GAOL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5453, 26 July 1929, Page 2

A SHOW GAOL.

QUEER PRACTICE AT MANILA. “Perhaps the only gaol in the world that serves as an entertainment —a show that you pay for like any other —is that at Manila in the Phillipines,” said Mr J. Beveridge, of Wellington, who has just returned from the Orient. “The. gaol then}, is an ordinary building. You buy a ticket, then wait in a crowd until the iron gates slide back. These clang to behind the crowd, as you make for one of a number of spiral stairways, which conduct you into a kind of a tower, the sloping sides of which are seated. Radiating from this tower on a lower level are the various compartments in which are incarcerated prisoners of various classes, each having a distinct uniform. A very fine band appears on the parade ground below, and to its music the prisoners, at the word of command, go , through certain evolutions and physical exercises. It is certainly a novel and interesting sight, but to make a shew place out of prison is a quoei* idea. I should mention that the prisoners are made to work at theii’ trades whilse serving out their sentences, and the public may inspect and purchase the goods.” c