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Q.--Have you talked with anyone about this?
A. No, I have not heard it mentioned.
Q.--Apart from compulsory photography and making it penal for a master to en- gage an unregistered or uncertificated servant, do you think we could do anything else to make registration effective?
A.-No. I have thought it over, and, to tell you honest truth, I don't see what else you can do. The Chinaman will always pass on his certificate of character. You engage a boy with a character, and very likely it is not the same boy the character represents.
Q. Can you tell us how you engage your chair and ricksha coolies at present ? A.—They hear that I have got no coolies and they come up. Sometimes the head boy goes down and gets them for me, but there are generally lots of coolies apply- ing, all sorts and conditions.
Q. Do they stay long in your employ? A.-Very seldom.
Q. Can you give us a reason for that?
A.-I can't make out.
After some months, they seem to have got so much money by them that they can afford to go away. We pay our coolies eight and-a-half dollars.
That is a good wage-no expenses except his chow-chow.
Q. What do you put down as the reason why they don't stay long?
A.—That is a thing I could never make out.
Q. Are there competing labour markets here?
It
A.-No, I don't know if that class of men go in for any other kind of labour. is difficult to tell with Chinamen. You pay a man high wages, and, without giving you any notice, he is gone next morning. I have kept their wages back for a week and they have gone off the same way leaving their week's wages behind.
Q.--Have they given any reasons at any time?
A.-No.
Q.-Have they complained in advance, and, giving their reasons, threatened to
leave?
A.-No.
Mr. Wilcox.-Referring to the question of the registration tickets that were form- erly issued, you said, which was very true, that nothing but the date was endorsed upon them. The date of the engagement and the date of the coolie leaving. On many tickets presented by some servants, there would be a whole series of dates.
Is it not a fact that coolies and serv uts generally were expected by employers about to engage them to produce testimonials showing why they left their different masters?
A. Some probably did.
Q.-A careful employer would say: "I notice you were at so-and-so, why did you leave without a testimonial ?” or Have you got a character ?" and they would pro- duce it, would they not?
A. Some of them. It might be done and might not.
Q.-In many cases, you could identify it by the handwriting. The registration tickets, I take it, were exceedingly useful?