( 20 )
Q.-But
you never heard any one mentioned as having received a bribe or a squeeze?
A.-No, I never did.
Q.-Have you ever heard any one's name mentioned as an authority for such a
statement?
A.-No.
Q. For instance, has it ever been said so and so says so and so?
A.-No.
Q.-And you have no idea how these things get about?
A.-No; it is a creation, I think, of Mr. SMITH's own brain mostly.
Q.-Hon. A. LISTER. I believe some of the Overseers get on much better with
Chinese than others?
A. Yes, some are mere patient and better tempered.
Q.-Are some of them unpopular with them?
A.-No, not more than others.
Q.-The CHAIRMAN.-When you have had to bring these men up before the Surveyor General what has it been for?
A. For not carrying out their work in a proper way, for not being up to time, or not putting enough men on.
Q.—Are the works mostly up to time?
A.-Mostly. Sometimes it may be a few days over, but that is not pressed.
Q. And it is only in exceptional cases?
A. Yes, where we are dealing with a thoroughfare and it is necessary to have it through quickly, we pull them up if they don't come up to time.
Q. And these are the cases you allude to?
A.--Yes, and very often where the work is not done properly.
Q.--But your remedy is to pull the work down?
A. Yes, but that means delay. There is not a day but what an Overseer has to pull some of the work to pieces-scarcely a day. Only this morning I had to tumble
down a bit of drain at Jardine's Bazaar.
Q. Did you ever know a case of a man who got on swimmingly with Contractors?
A.-No.
Q.-As a rule they have to worry the Contractors? There is no particular friend- ship between them?
A.-No. Some Contractors get a little more work than others, but that has nothing to do with the Overseers. They may tender lower.
Page 255Page 256