An estimate of revenue and expenditure for the year 1905, prepared by the Director of Merxplas for the Departmental Vagrancy Committee, contained the following principal items:-- _Revenue._ £ Maintenance grants (3,500 able-bodied inmates at 66 centimes per day, and 1,000 not able-bodied inmates at 1 franc 50 centimes per day) 55,626 Sale of farm produce (milk, vegetables, butter, sheep, pigs, etc.) to private persons 800 Produce of workshops (sold to private persons, prisons, charitable institutions, and discharged inmates) 15,000 Canteen 3,800 Miscellaneous 399 ------- Total £75,625 _Expenditure._ £ Salaries and allowances, permanent staff, etc. 9,329 Office, library, and school 220 Buildings and furniture 2,400 Maintenance and clothing 23,254 Colonists' earnings 11,720 Canteen (goods purchased) 1,960 Workshops (tools, raw materials, etc.) 14,181 Farm and estate (plants, seeds, manures, live stock, straw and fodder, etc.) 2,047 Miscellaneous 1,020 ------- Total £66,131 It will be seen that a credit balance of £9,494 is shown, but this is obviously a paper balance, inasmuch as no allowance is made for rent, interest on capital, or depreciation. On the other hand, in any full balance sheet a large accretion of capital value through improvements would be shown. On this subject Monsieur Stroobant writes to me:-- "The property of Merxplas belongs to the State, and its value increases every year because of the new buildings erected, the plantations, and the improvements made to the land. In 1870, there were only several small farms, heath and fir woods. The land had an area of about 650 hectares, and as the land was poor, its value was probably £12 per hectare."[56] The present value has never been accurately appraised, but I place it at £200,000. The increased value of the estate has been produced entirely by the labour of the detainees, Parliament having made no further grant for new buildings. The whole of the buildings were progressively erected between 1870 and 1895, according to the resources at disposal, but after a fixed plan conceived in a large spirit by the architect, Monsieur Besme." [Footnote 56: The Report of the Lindsey Quarter Sessions Committee on Vagrancy says that the original cost to the Government of the Merxplas estate was £32,000.]