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The Chairman.-The Western District is, I think, very poorly provided with Market accommodation is it not?
A.-I think it is.
Q.-Have you any means of forming an opinion, Mr. Brewin, as to whether or not the present system of letting the Markets and the high charges for the stalls has had any effect on prices of provisions? Don't you think it practically acts as a tax on the sale of provisions?
A. The stall-holders might make it a reason for raising the prices, but I think the Government should get a fair rent for the building.
Q.-But they are getting a fair rent are they not? Three thousand and odd dollars a month for the Central Market?
rents.
A.-It would be better to extend the Market accommodation than to lower the
I think the present system is the only way by which the Government can be sure of getting a proper rent.
Q.-Supposing there was a definite fixed rent for each stall and any man who could provide security for it wanted a fruit or vegetable stall why should he not be able to get it at that fixed rent?
A. The difficulty is in fixing the rent.
Q.-What you said yourself was that there should be a fair rent to the Govern- ment taking into consideration the cost of the building and its upkeep?
A. Yes, but you must not make it the same for each individual stall because they differ so much. They can pay so much more rent for one stall than they can for
another.
Q.-Could they not be valued accordingly, say a small rent for an inferior stall and a bigger rent for a superior stall ?
A. Yes, in a Market which has been long established. There would be no difficulty in valuing the Central Market.
Q.-You could arrive at a very good idea as to the relative value of the stalls there and so fix the rent?
A.-When we first moved into the Central Market it would have been impossible to do that.
Q. How is the new Market as to accommodation? Has it completely satisfied all the hopes that were entertained with regard to it as to light, etc. ?
A. —There was a complaint as to the light and I went down when I was a member of the Sanitary Board with Mr. Ormsby to inspect the place after dark and we could read perfectly well with the electric light, but, all the same, some of the men who were making up their accounts were using lamps. They perhaps wanted them to inspect the money more closely, but you could read their account books perfectly well. In the shops which may be rather worse lighted there are partitions in between.
Q. What is the difference between a shop and a stall?
A.-The stall is simply a table.
Q. How is one stall separated from another?
A. They are not separated at all.
Q. And the shop is partitioned off?
A. Yes.