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Witness. Yes, but nearly all private chair and ricksha coolies belong to a coolie
house.
The Chairman.-Yes, but they don't live in the house and they don't contribute
to the rent?
Besides
Witness. About twenty years ago, rent was only half what it is now. rent, food is dear. It is hard now, I believe, to get private chair coolies in town at nine dollars and at the Peak you have to pay ten dollars or perhaps twelve. The servants are very independent because they can get work so easily outside of private employ. That is a very important item that should, I think, be taken into consideration because a coolie, if he is not perfectly satisfied with his place in a private house can take a pole over his shoulder and go over to one of the godowns and earn fifteen or sixteen dollars
a month.
Mr. Wilcox.-As much as that?
A. So I am told on good authority-sometimes a dollar a day.
The Chairman.-The mystery then is why they ever became private chair and ricksla coolies. If that was the state of things that existed when they became private chair and ricksha coolies, it seems to me strange that they should ever become private chair and ricksha coolies if there is this inducement-this chance of better pay.
Mr. Wilcox. Perhaps one explanation for that would be the continuity of work.
Witness.-They can be perfectly independent now in a way they didn't use to be a number of years ago. A man can go out as a private chair and ricksha coolie and he will
pay for his food and rent and have an average of 40 cents a day.
Mr. Badeley. --More than that.
Witness.--That is a low average very likely. More than ten dollars a month. The rickshas are beginning to have three relays of men for each ricksha now, so that a man has only eight hours to work at a stretch. When the eight hours are done, he is his own master, free to do what he likes, whereas, in private employ, he is liable to be called upon at any time from early morning till midnight. Street chair coolies are very much better off than private chair coolies because, after paying for food and rent, they have eight or ten dollars or thereabout. The private coolie with eight or ten dollars is not so well off as the street coolie. These all seem difficult points and it is hard to know what one could do to meet all these difficult things.
The Chairman. Have you any suggestions for dealing with these points to lay before the Commission?
A
-You spoke about a licence or ticket or whatever it is. I would suggest that every man should have a ticket and that he should have his photograph put on it. I don't know what we can do about the rent and the food. As regards the rent, of course we need more houses for the labouring coolies, cheap transit out of the centre of the town, houses built in the suburbs or on the other side of the harbour and cheap fares across. This might affect the question and do a deal of good.
Q.-Yes, but all that would only have the effect of putting more money into the pockets of the public ricksha coolies and chair bearers and would make the occupation of the public ricksha coolie and chair bearer still more lucrative as compared with that of the private chair and ricksha coolie. All the projects you have mentioned would only tend to decrease the house rent. They would not tend either to decrease the price of food, or to reduce earnings.
A.-No.
Mr. Wilcox.-All that would be beneficial to the public coolies.