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Chair coolies nowadays say "You go back to house for tiffin ?""Yes."
"You go out very much dinner?"-"Yes." "Well," they say "No, I want nine dollars." Then if you say "No tiffin, but I may want you," they say "All right $8.50 can do."
The Chairman.-How does the pay of these coolies compare with the pay they get in China? And how does the work compare with the work they do in their own villages in China? Would not wages be lower and would not the work they would do be far more laborious than the work they would do here? Are they not at work in China "from early morn till dewy eve"?
A. Yes, the farmers are.
Q.-But what are these coolies but the farming class?
A. Yes, the farmers at home, some of them get three taels a month, that is $4.30 or $4.50 and in addition they get their chow. The master pays for it. Their home is near to them and they can go home in the evening, whereas in Hongkong their home is far away from thein. If they want to see their families they leave the Colony twice a year and they get no wages during the time they are away. In their own country they see their own family every day and they don't like to leave them. I think it is only when a man can't make enough to live on in his own country that he leaves it.
Mr. Wilcox.That is so.
Mr. Badeley. Do you know whether coolies here remit their earnings or part of them to their families ?
A.-Oh yes.
Q.-Much of them ?
A.--Yes.
Mr. Wilcox.-Some of them squander most of their earnings in gambling, I suppose?
A.-Oh yes.
I am talking generally, of course.
WONG PAK KUI declared:-
The Chairman.-What are you?
A.-I am Assistant Compradore at Melchers.
Q. Where is your private house?
A.-I live at No. 59, Queen's Road Central.
Q. Do you employ chair or ricksha coolies ?
A.-No.
Q.-Neither?
A.-No.
Q. How do you go about then?
A.-I engage a street ricksha.
Q. You say you do not keep coolies. Have you recently kept them-a year ago or six months ago?
A.-No.