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Q-Has Mr. Ladds at his disposal any staff to see to the cleansing of the Market or are those who do this under the Public Works Departinent ?
A.--The Inspector is under Mr. Ladds, but I do not know where his salary is paid.
QIs there any reasonable reason why the Registrar-General's Department as such should have anything to do with the letting of the Markets at all?
A.-I do not know of any special reason.
Q.-So far as you know the management and control of the Markets, including the letting of the stalls, might be put into the hands of any one of the departments?
A. Yes; except for one reason, and that is the stall-holders are Chinese and the Registrar-General's Department has officers who can speak to the Chinese in their own language, and the Chinese can come to them about any trouble or anything of that sort. That is the only reason I know.
Q-But supposing the letting of the stalls was in the hands of the Public Works Department, the same as the letting of any other Government building, the Registrar- General's Department could exercise precisely the same function of Protector of Chinese that they exercise now?
A. Yes; but the Chinese have an idea that their interests are better looked after by the Registrar-General's Department. The mere letting of the stalls and so on could easily be done by some other department, I should think.
Mr. Maitland. Is there any other description of building which you rent?
A. We rent the laundries.
Mr. Marshall. Is more than one stall in the Market rented by one individual ?
A. Yes, a few are.
Q. How many stalls are let to a guild?
A. We have nothing of that sort. In the Central Market there are a number of stalls in a bad position, and the beef butchers said they would pay the rents to avoid their being interfered with themselves by any re-arrangement.
The Chairman. Do not you think it would be better, Mr. Ball, to have separate Markets for Chinese food supply as distinct from European supply ?
A.-There might be separate Markets for pork, but most of the other things in the Market are bought by Europeans and Chinese alike. Pork is different. Of course Europeans, as a rule, do not touch Chinese pork.
Mr. Marshall.--Is there any record kept of the applications for the different stalls?
A. They are kept for a little while, but not for any length of tine.
Q.-Can you give us any rough idea of the number of applications for vegetable stalls in the Central Market in excess of the supply?
A. That depends very much on the position of the stall. There might be 20 applications for one stall, say in the Western Market. In the outlying Markets there might be no applications at all, or only one or two.
The Chairman. Do not you think the system of Markets as at present in Hong- kong must considerably tend to stop fair and open competition, say among the butchers?
A. Do you mean have no Markets at all ?
Q.-Supposing you had a wholesale Market for meat, and the retail butcher was allowed to have his shop anywhere in town, the same as in London, don't you think there would be greater competition?
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