BELGIAN LABOUR COLONIES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9704, 29 January 1910, Page 4

BELGIAN LABOUR COLONIES.

In Belgium experiments have gone a long way towards solving the problem presented by the existence of two classes burdening r every civilised community—the "can't works" aiid the "won't works." The unfortunate incapables and aged are kept at what is known as the Home of Refuge at Hoogstraeten, while the professional beggars, drunkards, bullies, and idlers are consigned to the more drastic Vagabonds' Home at Merx

plas, where a scientific system of subdivision preserves the younger wasters from contamination by those more inured to a life of "vagabondage. The Home of Refuge is practically a charitable institution, and the inmates to all intents and purposes are paid labourers, They work at their own trade (if they have one), and on being discharged receive a quota of their earnings. Those who have no trade (and they form the majority) are put to domestic duties, farm work, etc., and have to perform tasks up to a certain , value before they can claim their discharge. No man, however, may be detained against his will for more than twelve months. Discipline and hard work are the watchwords at the Vagabonds' Home. The men must reciain for at least two years, but no longer than seven years. At the Home of Refuge the inmates may earn from 2d to 7d per diem; at the Vagabonds' Home the rates are about one half less. It is significant to note that during the first eight years after the passing of the vagrancy laws establishing these homes, the number of inmates dropped from 9,000 to 6,000.