Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 26 June 1894, Page 3

Notes and Events.

It is woi'thy cf inquiry whether the system adopted in our prisons i . working in the same manner as ifc is alleged fche English prison discipline is doing. In the Fortnightly the Rev. W. D. Morrison says thafc out of 10,000 inmates in local prisons in 1875 77, 113 became insane, in 1890-92, 226, or exactly twice as many became insane. This increase in the ratio of insanity plainly shows that our present principles of prison discipline are debilitating a much larger number of the prison population than used to be the case. . . In many cases ifc is want of mental stability quite as much as adverse social surroundings which leads on to this career. If our methods of prison discipline tend to make a natural unstable mind still more unstable, how can we expect that man to b 8 a law-abiding member of society again ?

Joseph Joachim was presented with a jubilee gift in London a short time ago, and took tho form of a " red " Strad, with a gold-mounted Tourfce bow. Joachim was born at Kittse near Presburg on June 28th, 1831. He was only five when be began to play the violin, and at the age of seven he made his debut at Pesth. He first appeared at the Drury Lane Theatre in London in 1844, "when he was 12 years of age. He studied at Vienna under Boehm, and at Leipzig under Ferdinand David. In 1868 he was appointed Director of the High School of Music at Berlin. Joachim has played every year at the Popular Concerts in London since 1865.

Madame Louisa de la Ram6e, "Ouida" being the name she is mostly known by, is now fifty-three years old. She was born afc Bury Sfc. Edmunds in Suffolk. Her father was a French refugee who settled in England. While still in her teens she wrote her firsfc novel " Granville de Vigne," which was published fcwo years later (1863) under the title of "Held in Bondage."' In the Galiforuian Magazine Mr Charles Robinson describes briefly Ouida as she is fco be seen to day in Florence : — Her pallid, masculine face habitually bears a weary, depressed look, and there is a lack-lustre expression about her largo gray eyes. The mass of blonde hair which flows loosely over her shoulders has an ashen tinge. Ifc is whispered fchafc her maid spends many hours daily iv dressing ifc, and that the perfume which she uses in her toilefc costs thirty dollars an ounce. She has always lavished money on her wardrobe. She especially prizes a magnificent set of sables, the gift of a wealthy Muscovite admirer. Next in her affections is au unique collection of old laces, purchased at odd times whenever she had an opportunity. She has also an immense collection of shoes iv every variety of style, all made with nice, artistic eye toward the proper display of her slimly arched instep. Her gloves, too, are all made to order.