| Men. | Women. | Total. | Per Cent. | |
| 6 weeks or under | 66 | 10 | 76 | 18.0 |
| 6 weeks to 3 months | 75 | 9 | 84 | 20.0 |
| 3 months to 6 months | 131 | 19 | 150 | 35.6 |
| 6 months to 9 months | 79 | 6 | 85 | 20.2 |
| 9 months to 12 months | 19 | — | 19 | 4.5 |
| Over 12 months | 6 | 1 | 7 | 1.7 |
| Total | 376 | 45 | 421 | 100.0 |
During 1908 the inmates performed 65,091½ days of work, the value of which was £3,474; of this sum, £184 was paid to them in wages, so that the net proceeds of their labour amounted to 1s. for every day worked by the inmates. The cost of maintenance (deducting revenue) averaged, during the five years 1903 to 1907, nearly 1s. 5d. per head per day, and the cost of food only 5½d. The institution derives an income of about £1,600 from endowments, and the actual cost to the municipal funds during those years was under 6d. per head per day.
It may be interesting to add a statement showing the admissions to the correctional department of the Labour House for a series of years. It will be seen that while there have been fluctuations, no absolute increase is shown.
| Year. | Males. | Females. | Total. | |||||||
| On compulsion. | Voluntarily. | On compulsion. | Voluntarily. | |||||||
| 1892 | 64 | 111 | 8 | 16 | 199 | |||||
| 1893 | 228 | 195 | 25 | 31 | 479 | |||||
| 1894 | 194 | 182 | 31 | 31 | 442 | |||||
| 1895 | 160 | 227 | 23 | 46 | 456 | |||||
| 1896 | 161 | 167 | 19 | 34 | 381 | |||||
| 1897 | 200 | 93 | 23 | 26 | 342 | |||||
| 1898 | 185 | 154 | 23 | 19 | 381 | |||||
| 1899 | 109 | 252 | 7 | 25 | 393 | |||||
| 1900 | 70 | 245 | 13 | 22 | 350 | |||||
| 1901 | 88 | 313 | 13 | 18 | 432 | |||||
| 1902 | 80 | 276 | 16 | 16 | 388 | |||||
| 1903 | 76 | 261 | 22 | 10 | 369 | |||||
| 1904 | 91 | 241 | 29 | 11 | 372 | |||||
| 1905 | 109 | 238 | 37 | 5 | 389 | |||||
| 1906 | 90 | 274 | 37 | 4 | 405 | |||||
| 1907 | 77 | 222 | 22 | 5 | 326 | |||||
| 1908 | 204 | 213 | 50 | 4 | 471 | |||||
BERNE POORHOUSE OF KÜHLEWYL.
A Swiss example of a virtual Forced Labour Colony carried on as a part of the machinery of the Poor Law is the Kühlewyl Poorhouse belonging to the municipality of Berne. This institution was created some eighteen years ago for the reception of several distinct classes of inmates (to the exclusion of children), and principally for (1) persons permanently unable to work and support themselves, and having no means of subsistence, and (2) persons either altogether or partially unable to maintain themselves whose lodgment in such an institution seemed "justifiable in the public interest." The latter phrase is a significant one. What it implies will be best understood from a passage in a report addressed to the Municipal Council Committee, which, under the guidance of the mayor of the day, formulated the scheme. "We regard it," they said, "as of the greatest importance that there be established for Berne a Poorhouse in which all such adult poor may be lodged to whom this mode of maintenance is suited. They include, not only a large number of the infirm and incapable, but particularly all the good-for-nothings and depraved people who become a burden on public charity, whose conduct is a cause of annoyance, and who cannot be improved except by systematic discipline, by work, wholesome food and regular life." In fact, one great object was to clear the streets of Berne of the lazy and immoral of both sexes—people who could not, in a democratic country, be arbitrarily packed off to a prison, yet who were rightly regarded as social pests. The first of these two classes certainly far outweighs the second, but the second is by no means a small one. To this extent the Poorhouse has much in common with the Cantonal Labour Houses already referred to.
The number of persons who entered or passed through the Poorhouse during the year 1908 was as follows:—
| Males. | Females. | Total | |
| Detained on January 1 | 202 | 152 | 354 |
| Admitted during the year | 54 | 24 | 78 |
| Discharged during the year | 36 | 26 | 62 |
| Detained on December 31 | 220 | 150 | 370 |