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Q.-Somebody gave me a hint you could perhaps tell us something about it?
A. I remember shortly after I was promoted from the Gaol Department into the Surveyor General's Office as corresponding clerk I thought it was very improper that an office of such importance as that I occupied, where there was so much correspondence, should be open for any of the members of the department, that others than those con- nected with the correspondence could be able to look at it. The correspondence was there on the table and during some mornings there would perhaps be nine or ten
different people in the office.
Q. What sort of people?
A.-The Overseers, Contractors, and so on.
Q.-What room did you sit in?
A. The same room that CHAN FUK now sits in.
Q.-That is a sort of ante-room to Mr. PRICE's office? ·
A. Yes.
Q. And everyone coming to see Mr. PRICE passes through that room?
A.-More or less. I think the cases are very exceptional in which anyone enters Mr. PRICE's office by the side door.
Q.-Then that room serves as a sort of waiting room for Overseers?
A.-It does.
Q.--And there are generally four or five Overseers in it waiting?
A.-Some, particularly in the morning from ten to twelve or half-past.
Q. Do you mean to say all the letter books are there?
A. The letter books are not, but the précis sent out by Mr. PRICE are, and during the time these people are there you are engaged in copying the letters that pass between Mr. PRICE and the Colonial Secretary's Office.
Q. Where are the letter books kept?
A. In the same room.
Q.-So that really these papers and letter books can be seen by any of these people?
A.-They may be; there is nothing to prevent them.
Q. Hon. F. B. JOHNSON.-How many are there of you in the correspondence office, or how many were there at the time this letter of Mr. PRICE'S was written?
A.-Myself, Mr. KAM SHING-WONG, and LUM SHUN, three of us.
Q.-Into whose hands would this letter pass?
A. My own.