140  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED

work  as  a  condition  of  remaining.  Apart  from  bridging
over  a  certain  period  of  distress,  the  chief  use  of  the
Workshop  is  in  enabling  a  selection  to  be  made  of  men
who  are  suitable  for  drafting  on  to  the  Farm  Colony,  with
a  view  to  a  sounder  and  fuller  industrial  training,  chiefly
in  connection  with  agriculture.  The  workshops  thus  act
for  the  main  as  a  relief  agency,  the  greater  part  of  those
resident  at  any  given  time  being  reabsorbed  into  the  class
of  casual  workers.  Out  of  those  who  volunteer  for  the
Hadleigh  Farm  a  certain  number  are  selected  and  the
farm  authorities  make  a  final  choice  out  of  these.  A  certain ­
  number  also  enter  without  passing  through  the  Elevator
Workshop.  It  is  very  difficult  to  estimate  the  success  of
this  experiment.  In  the  earlier  years  (1891  to  1893)  the
bulk  of  the  colonists  were  engaged  in  non-agricultural  work,
in  brickfields,  in  making  a  wharf  and  embankments,  or  in
manufacturing  work.  Since  1893  more  attention  has  been
paid  to  the  agricultural  side  with  a  considerable  reduction
in  the  net  cost  of  the  colony.
Valuable  educative  and  restorative  work  has  doubtless
been  done,  though  the  full  work  of  the  colony  cannot  be
ascertained  until  the  Over  Sea  Colony  which  it  was
designed  to  feed  with  labour  has  been  put  into  operation.
At  present  only  a  minority  of  the  colonists  remain  for
any  considerable  time,  so  that  the  colony  cannot  be
regarded  as  an  important  part  of  the  social  drainage
system.
The  smaller  but  more  carefully  ordered  training  farm
established  by  Mr.  Hazell  in  connection  with  the  Self-Help
Emigration  Society  proves  pretty  conclusively  that  unskilled
men,  even  when  carefully  selected,  cannot  be  trained  for
farm  work  except  at  a  very  considerable  cost,  though  a