------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- Number of Times | | | | | | | Committed. | 1902. | 1903. | 1904. | 1905. | 1906. | 1907. | 1908. ------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- For the first time | 674 | 668 | 558 | 517 | 547 | 519 | 720 For the second time | 546 | 585 | 552 | 595 | 522 | 442 | 561 For the third time | 493 | 472 | 582 | 516 | 488 | 433 | 465 For the fourth time | 446 | 470 | 455 | 406 | 420 | 406 | 425 For the fifth time or oftener | 2,355 | 2,454 | 2,468 | 2,590 | 2,449 | 2,412 | 2,260 +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- Total number of | | | | | | | admissions | 4,514 | 4,649 | 4,615 | 4,624 | 4,426 | 4,212 | 4,431 ------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- The whole of the men capable of working, either much or little, are employed according to their aptitudes and physical capacity, either in farm and land work, in the workshops, in domestic work in and around the establishment, or in the service of outside employers. On a given day in 1907, 1,279 men were engaged on the farm and land, 1,970 in industrial work for the profit of the Colony, 811 in domestic work, and 525 were lent to other institutions. The men engaged in the fields work in gangs of between fifty and sixty, each under a single overseer. Shelters exist for their accommodation in wet weather, and when it is impossible to do outside work they are employed in the workshops. The trades and occupations are very numerous, but the principal are brick, pipe and tile making, iron founding, button making, wood-working, mat, boot, and shoe making, weaving, tanning, tailoring, carpentering, and printing. Several years ago, a Committee appointed by the Lindsey (Lincoln) Quarter Sessions visited Merxplas and reported as follows upon what they saw of the workshops:--[55] [Footnote 55: Report of the Vagrancy Committee adopted by the Court of Quarter Sessions (Lincolnshire, Parts of Lindsey) on Friday, October 23, 1903.] "Each shop was under a trade instructor. The men appeared to be working cheerfully and diligently. As wages were higher in the shops, we were told that it was made a privilege to work there. All the shops were large and airy, and the following were the principal industries being carried on at the time of our visit. "In the ironfoundry they were making their own patterns, doing their own casting, turning, and finishing for everything in the way of metal used in the establishment, from cast iron window frames to brass pumps.