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Q. How high do these partitions go ?
A.--About as high as that bookcase. [About 7 feet.]
Q. Why are compradores who sell tinned provisions allowed into the Market ? What business have they there?
A. They have really no business there. If there was a demand for the stalls by people selling perishable goods they would have to go. But at the old Central Market there were some compradore's shops and when it was about to be pulled down these men were promised that they would get premises in the new Market when it was built. In the Central Market one side was taken up by poultry and, as I found that the poultry men did not want so much accommodation, we allowed the compradores to. have some more room.
Q.--Have many new compradores been allowed there who had no claim in conse- quence of their connection with the old Market? or would you say that the compradores there now had claims?
A.-No, not all of them.
Q-If they were sent out and told to find shops outside would that not leave adequate room in the Central Market?
A.-I don't think the room is wanted in the Central Market.
Q.Are there any compradores in the Western Market?
A.-I don't think there are any. I don't remember.
Mr. Fung Wa Chün.-Does it not happen that the rent of a certain stall is very much higher than that of its next neighbour?
A. Yes, there might be a difference of $10 on the rent of the very next stall --$8 any way.
Mr. Maitland.-Exactly the same position?
A.-No, the difference in rent is on account of the position.
Q. How is that when they are so close to one another?
When a
A.-Of course some difference might be caused in the following way. stall is put up for tender a good deal of the money might be paid for the good-will of the late business, and the difference in that case might not depend upon the position at all.
The Chairman.-If that is so the Government should not get that money? A.-Well, if the stall is thrown on the Government's hands.
Q.-We understood from Mr. Ball that sometimes it happened when a stall bad been let for a low rent and one or two stalls in the neighbourhood became empty that the Department raised the rents and raised the rent of the man who had been paying the low rent. A man has been paying $10 a month for some time. One or two stalls in his neighbourhood have been put up for tender and a much higher price has been got for them.
You don't wait till that man is finished with his stall. The Department goes and says. If
If you don't quit this stall you must pay more. Is that so?
A.-They don't do that as a rule. The rents were settled by Mr. Mitchell-Inues. In 1898 and 1899, I went over the old rents and compared them with the rents of the When I found that any of the stalls had not got the old occupants in them I raised the rents, but I did not raise them to a rack rent,
new men.
Q.-You raised it to the same standard as the new ones?
A.-I think as a matter of fact I raised it half as high. I could not be sure though.