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Q.-Then how is this given? Is it given always when the bill is finished or at a certain time of the year?
A.-Sometimes when they get the money, sometimes at the end of the year, and sometimes on festival days.
Q.-Partly in money and partly in presents?
A.-Not at the same time. Perhaps at the Autumn festival they present you with two boxes of cakes and some fowls.
Q.-These are things of trifling value?
A. Yes.
Q. Who has done most of this writing out of bills during the time you have been there, which of the clerks in the Office?
A.-Mr. KAM CHU-SHEUNG.
Q.-Can you give us some idea how much you have made, taking one month with another, during the time you have been in the Office?
A.-I should say not more than $30 a year.
Q.-$2.50 a month?
A.-Sometimes. They pay as much as they like. It is not very proper for me to say, you have to pay me so much because your bill amounts to so much. If they give you a $5 note you cannot ask for more.
Q.-You say you have made $2.50 a month?
A. Yes; I have very little time.
Q.-I infer KAM CHU-SHEUNG must have made much more, because he has written
more than you have?
A.-I can assure you most of the Contractors do not pay him.
Q.-But why don't they pay him? Is he so good-natured, or are they so ill-
natured?
A.-Well, for friendship. It seems rather mean to ask a man for money.
Q.-Hon. F. B. JOHNSON.-But it is not mean to take it?
A.-Well, it is mean to ask for it.
Q.-Is it not mean to ask him to do all this work and not give him anything for it?
A.-No.
Q-Is a man to do all this for nothing? Just look at these bills and see how much he has done in that one month. That is the case with every months' bills. Do you expect me to believe all these bills are made out for nothing?
No answer.