(17)
Q.--Does he pay for a boat or anything?
A. No boat is required because the junk comes alongside the Praya; but I have to engage coolies to take the cattle up to the Government Depôt.
Q. How much do you pay at the Government Depôt ?
A.-Two cents a night. I engage three coolies to look after the cattle and I pay them $13 a month besides food. I pay $8 to one and two at $2.50 each.
Q. How much do you get for the hides from your friend who lends you money?
A.
I sell them by weight at 7 taels 5 per picul.
Q. How many piculs does a skin average-big cattle?
A. Say 50 catties.
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Q. When you first went into the New Market how much did you pay for Tien Chau cattle six or seven years ago?
A.-$23 or $24 per head. That is the bigger size.
Q. Did you buy them the same way you do now ?
A.--Yes.
Q--And what about the smaller size?
A.--They did not sell small ones.
Q-But they sell small ones now. They were $13 to $14, were they not? A.-Well, there were large cattle and small ones, and the average was $23 or $24 per bead.
Q. When did the price go up to $46 or $47 per head ?
A.-Last year.
Q-And the year before last, what was the price?
A.--Say between $16 and $17 per picul.
Q. How much per head, big and little?
A.--Well, I cannot tell from memory what was the price of large cattle.
Q.--You were able to tell me what the price was six years ago; why cannot you tell ine the price the year before last?
A. Sometimes the price was fair and reasonable and sometimes it was not. Q.--What was a fair and reasonable price the year before last?
A.--About the same; that is $23 or $24.
Q. What made the price go up last year to $46 to $47 ?
A.-Because the junks which were carrying the cattle were robbed.
Q.-Well now, every month has he been getting cattle from Tieu Chau regularly for the last six years?
A. Yes.
Q.-And there has not been any stoppage 2
A.-There was a stoppage about six months last year, when all the cattle were lost on the way,
Q. Where did you get cattle from then?
A.-From Nam Hung and from Kwangse, for which I had to pay a high price.
Q.-Did they come down the river in the same way as the Tien Chau cattle? A.-They came down by a different river.
Q.--What river?
A. They came by the lower river.
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