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A.-As I understand it. coolie houses are really in some cases coolie guilds. The coolies from each different district, have their own coolie houses and in many ways these houses answer to what might be called guilds. They act as collectors for religious purposes connected with the province or district or whatever it may be and a coolic is out of employment, he will go to one of these coolie houses and get credit.
Q.--Oh, he can get credit?
A. He gets credit but it is not a guild in the sense of taking up their quarrels about anything or acting like a mutual benefit society at Home. They do not actually provide for coolies out of employ, so far as I can ascertain.
Q.-But this might happen, if a coolie or coolies have left an employer and con- sider they have a grievance against him they could go to their lodging house and get the employer boycotted in that particular house, but not in another, I suppose?
A.--No, a Hok-lo coolie would not get the coolics of another district to boycott you. Mr. Wilcox. I have had several cases brought to my notice lately with regard to amahs, boys and coolies where people have apparently been boycotted, but it is very hard to trace it. Probably the same agency is at work all round among the servants.
Mr. Badeley--Suppose a new man offered to come into your employ who had not had employment before and had no registration ticket, I suppose you would have to take him to the Registrar General's Office and get him registered yourself?
A.--Send him down with a chit.
Q.-Did the Registrar General make any inquiries about him?
A.-None whatever.
Q.-So you had no guarantee against him being a rascal?
A.--None whatever.
The Chairman. If an Ordinance was introduced, do you think it would facilitate matters if no fees were charged? By the old Ordinance, a fee of 25 cents was charged. A.I think that that would probably facilitate matters to a certain extent, because to a Chinaman 25 cents is a considerable sum. My own impression at the pre- sent moment is that it is more a question of supply and demand than anything else.
A coolie can go-I am assured and I believe it is true- -a coolie can go and earn more as an outside coolie than he can being employed in a European house. He can act as a street or cargo coolie and he will earn ten dollars a month. In a private house, he may be said to earn eight and-a-half dollars or so.
Q. If it is as you say, why do they go into private employ at all ?
A.-Because they are more comfortable in one way. They get comfortable quar- ters and are certain of their earnings.
Q. What do you think of a proposal to fix rates of pay for private chair and ricksha coolies in the same way as rates of pay for cargo-boatmen per day are fixed by Ordinance ?
A. Honestly, I don't think it would work.
Q. Why not?
Mr. Badeley.-There is a maximum fee of so much a day for cargo-boatmen but you can also pay them by the job.
A. Do I believe it would be a good plan to have every servant registered and bound to work at a rate not above a certain maximum wage? It seems to me to be absolutely contrary to the modern idea of freedom of contract. It would be simply