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Q-How are you going to get coolies for them?
A.-I have got 600 men already.
Q.-Where from?
A.-Swatow and Chu-chau.
Q-Under contract?
A. Not under contract as yet.
Q-But will there be any contract ?
A. When the rickshas have been issued, then they will sign a contract before the elders.
Q.-For how long?
A. Most of them will be for six months.
Q. How are you going to treat them ? Will they pay you so much a day for the use of the ricksha, or will you pay them wages?
A. They pay me so much a day for the use of the ricksha, and I let them have free quarters.
Q. You are to provide the quarters ? A.—Ten rickshas require twenty men. men and they will all live on one floor or flat.
There will be a headman to each twenty
Was it very easy
?
Q. Had you any difficulty in getting these 600 men? A. I had much difficulty this time. I had to give many dinner parties to the A.—I elders before I could get many of them to come.
Q.-But surely the ricksha coolies make a lot of money. I should have thought
it would have been very easy to get them to come?
A. The rickshas are too many now.
Q. Do you think they will make less or more?
A. They will make less.
Mr. Wilcox. The traffic is increasing all the time.
The Chairman.--There are more passengers. The Colony is growing every day. Witness. The rickshas have increased by more than half. The passengers have not increased by the same proportion.
Mr. Badeley. How much does a public ricksha coolie make?
A.-Over ten dollars. If he is a diligent man, he can make fifteen. If he is a lazy man he can only make seven or eight dollars.
Q.-Do they make more money in some parts of the town than others? Are there certain men who have acquired a right to certain stands? Do certain men monopolise certain stands ?
A. Not now. After I draw up this scheme they are only to run-
Q-I am not talking about your scheme at present, but what you know of the general conditions prevailing.
A. Those who stand at the Central Market belong to the Fook Yi Hing Com- pany, those who stand by No. 5 Police Station belong to the Man On Company. Now they can make more money in West Point than they can in Wanchai. Some nights they can't get passengers in Wanchai, but in West Point you can get many.
[This concluded the sitting, and the Commission adjourned sine die.]