( 57 )
Q.--Have you formed any opinion as to the reason of the existing difficulty? It seems to be one not so much of procuring servants as getting them to stay with you when you have got them. Have you any idea as to the cause of that difficulty-why it is that servants won't stay?
A.- -One reason may be that outside coolies are making a very good thing out of it and I believe they have been these last few years, and, of course, when a coolie resigns or loses his place, he can always go and stay in his house for a month or so without any great expenditure as he pays a regular subscription.
Mr. Wilcox.-Oh, is that so?
A. They pay a small subscription.
The Chairman.-Even although in private employ?
A. Yes.
Q.-What sort of a house is it?
A.--It may be a lodging house or a small society.
The Chairman. They pay a sort of absentee fee I suppose?
A. Yes, it gives them a lodging and it is their subscription to religious ceremonies and that sort of thing.
Q. Are you personally and officially-put it both ways-in favour of compulsory registration of private chair and ricksha coolies, Mr. Brewin?
A.--Yes, I think it would be a good thing if they were registered.
Mr. Wilcox. Do you think it would be desirable in addition to registering and photographing coolies to make any regulation as to wages, there being many complaints as to the forcing up of wages of late to a very high point-as much as ten, and eleven and even twelve dollars a month?
A.-No, I can hardly go as far as that.
Q.-You don't think it would be well to interfere with the law of supply and demand?
A. Not in that way, I should think.
Q. Do you think that private chair coolies drift very much into the ranks of the outside licensed chair coolies?
A.-While I lived in Caine Road, there was a chair coolie stand outside my door and I was always noticing these fellows turning up as private chair coolies. There may have been sixteen men there, and I am sure I have recognised five or six of then in uniform at different times and then they would come back to the public chairs in a few months.
Mr. Wilcox.-I have seen my own coolies plying for hire in the street.
The Chairman.-Whilst they have been in your employment?
Mr. Wilcox.-No, after leaving. Then I have noticed them in some other person's uniform. You (witness) say that, when in private employ, they still continue a subscription to the lodging-house from which they originally came. That would seem to prove to me that it is an organised club.
A. It is what you would call an association. I think it would be best described as a friendly society.
Q-That gives the basis of an organization for the promotion of strikes if neces-
sary?
A.-Undoubtedly.