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]
"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.
"Next to this was a very large shop for making cement tiles, working for outside firms on a recently invented system of employing hydraulic cement and colours to furnish tiles of elaborate colouring and patterns. This shop was on a large scale, and doing remunerative work, and impressed us very much.
"The mat making shop was of the ordinary kind, but on a very large scale. Every description of mat, from the sennet to the thick pile mat worked in patterns, was made.
"The weaving shop presented an interesting industry, which could be easily learned by the unskilled, namely that of making yarn of cowhair, which is afterwards worked into carpets. Other men were busy spinning the thread for the warp of the cloth used for the colonists' clothes. A large portion of this shop was also occupied by hand-looms in full work, where the cloth itself was being woven.
"The button shop, for making mother of pearl buttons for the outside trade, has been newly started. This shop formed an exception, in that all the lathes were bought from outside, none being made at Merxplas.
"In the carpenters' shop was a prison van which was made entirely by colonist labour, with the one exception of the springs. There was an order on hand for 1,100 window frames for a new prison. We also saw there some excellent furniture, large numbers of chairs, travelling trunks, and cabinet work of all kinds.
"The cobblers were busy on boots for the Army, which were hand-made throughout. Here they were also making hospital shoes from the selvage of cloth woven on a block; a very ingenious method of utilising waste material.
"All the printing required for the colonies is also done in a printing shop.
"In another small shop about twenty men were employed in making fine chains for sham jewellery.
"The brick works were large, employing thirty-six men at brick-making, exclusive of those employed at the furnaces, and the clay-getters. The usual number of bricks made was about 70,000 daily, the men being paid 15 centimes (1·4d.) per 1,000.
"On an equally large scale was the making of cement conduit pipes. The cement is made at a factory in the neighbourhood, and the white sand is also bought.
"After visiting the brickworks we passed through small shops of stone-masons and sculptors to the pottery and the tannery. The last had a large number of hides in preparation, and uses bark from the trees of the estate, but not exclusively.
"To the north of the workshops the three-winged building is a store. Here we saw a quantity of bar iron, one of the few materials that Merxplas cannot itself produce.
"Here was also the clothing store. The cloth is made throughout by the colonists, with the one exception of the 'fulling' process, which requires special machinery. The material was of several different kinds, including two varieties for officers' uniform, and all that is required for the winter and summer clothing of the colonists. Civilian clothes and tools, also made in the colony, can be purchased by the colonists when they are liberated. In the centre were several large rooms full of the private clothes and other belongings of the colonists, each in their own bag, and all remarkably free from any offensive odour.
"The farming seemed to be carried on on the same excellent principles as the workshops. The crops of maize and hemp were remarkably tall (the latter supplies the raw material for rope making), and the fields generally seemed thoroughly worked and tilled. The cowhouse and piggeries were very clean, and all the buildings were of excellent design and well-built. A large number of horses and oxen are kept for farm work, as not much spade cultivation is used. There is a large herd of milking cows to supply the hospital, and a considerable number of young stock and sheep are also kept, the latter being housed and hand-fed in winter. The whole of the products are consumed in the colony, and, as is the practice in the shops, very little machinery is used, whilst a large amount of labour is employed in bringing fresh ground under cultivation. The sandy top-soil is first removed and immense quantities of Antwerp street sweepings and clay rubbish are put on. Large gangs are also employed in hand-weeding, and all the advantages of farming with abundance of cheap labour are conspicuous."
The accounts of a recent year show proceeds of trades as follows: Mat making, £4,200; weaving, £5,753; shoe making, £1,324; brick paving, £1,266; forge and foundry, £1,847; tobacco, £1,671; tanning, £1,852; tailoring, £3,600; furniture, £1,346, and brick making, £1,913. The profits on twenty-six trades in 1907 were said to be £4,072.
The usual work-day consists of about ten hours in summer, and between seven and nine in winter, broken by three intervals for meals and rest. The day's routine is as follows:—
| SUMMER | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week-days. | April 1 to September 15. | September 16 to October 31. | ||||
| Rise | 4.30 | a.m. | 5.0 | a.m. | ||
| Distribution of bread | 5.0 | " | 5.30 | " | ||
| Work | 5.45 | " | 6.15 | " | ||
| Doctor's visit | 7.0 | " | 7.0 | " | ||
| First meal and rest | 8.0 | " | 8.0 | " | ||
| Work | 8.30 | " | 8.30 | " | ||
| Director's report | 8.30 | " | 8.30 | " | ||
| Director's report | 10.0 | " | 10.0 | " | ||
| Second meal—in two parties | 10.40 11.40 | " | 10.40 11.40 | " | ||
| Work | 1.15 | p.m. | 1.15 | p.m. | ||
| Rest | 4.0 | " | 4.0 | " | ||
| Work | 4.30 | " | 4.30 | " | ||
| Third meal | 6.45 | " | 6.45 | " | ||
| Bed | 7.0 | " | 7.0 | " | ||
| Sunday. | ||||||
| General medical inspection | After mass. | After mass. | ||||
| Mass | 7.0 and 8.0 a.m. | 7.0 and 8.0 a.m. | ||||
| Vespers | 2.30 | p.m. | 2.30 | p.m. | ||
| WINTER | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week-days. | April 1 to November 1 to February 15. | February 16 to March 31 | ||||
| Rise | 6.0 | a.m. | 5.30 | a.m. | ||
| Distribution of bread and coffee | 6.30 | " | 6.00 | " | ||
| Work | 7.15 | " | 6.45 | " | ||
| Doctor's visit | 8.0 | " | 8.0 | " | ||
| Director's report | 10.0 | " | 10.0 | " | ||
| Second meal—in two parties | 10.40 11.40 | " | 10.40 11.40 | " | ||
| Work | 1.15 | p.m. | 1.15 | p.m. | ||
| Third meal | 4.0 | " | 5.0 | " | ||
| Bed | 4.30 | " | 5.30 | " | ||
| Sunday. | ||||||
| General medical inspection | After mass. | After mass. | ||||
| Mass | 8.0 and 9.0 a.m. | 8.0 and 9.0 a.m. | ||||
| Vespers | 2.0 | p.m. | 2.0 | p.m. | ||
| Sunday. | ||||||
| General medical inspection | After mass. | After mass. | ||||
| Mass | 8.0 and 9.0 a.m. | 8.0 and 9.0 a.m. | ||||
| Vespers | 2.0 | p.m. | 2.0 | p.m. | ||
It may be noted that the diet of the colonists, while varied, is almost exclusively vegetarian, but the inmates may supplement their ordinary food by extras purchasable at the canteen at cost price.
There is no doubt that great organising ability is shown in the industrial management of Merxplas. The ruling principles are the following:—