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YAU A TIN declared:-
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The Chairman.-What are you?
A.-I am a chair coolie.
Q-How long have you been in Hongkong?
A. Over ten years.
Q. What is the number of your chair?
A.
It is No. 53.
Q. Have you been a chair coolie all the time you have been in Hongkong?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you mean a public chair coolie ?
A-Yes.
Q. Have you never been anything else?
A. I have only been a street chair coolie.
Q. How much do you pay a month for your rent?
A.—Six hundred cash (about sixty cents) a month. Q.-Five years ago how much did you pay?
A.-Thirty cents.
Q. What do you pay now per month for your food ?
A.A little over six dollars.
Q.-Five years ago how much did you pay ?
A.--It was cheap then. It cost me a little over four dollars.
Q. What do you earn nett per month?
A. Five dollars.
Q. Do you now earn nett more per month than you did five years ago?
A. I made more money five years ago.
Q. How do you explain that?
A.—Well, I had more business five years ago, but now business has diminished. Q. Why is business dull ?
A. Because people are getting poor and they can't afford to take a chair.
Q. Have you been on the same stand the whole time you have been in Hong- kong.
A. Yes.
Q-Have you not changed your stand all these years?
A. Only from one side of the street to the other.
Q.-Where is your street?
A. At the Central Police Station, top of Pottinger Street.
Q. Did you pay anything for your chair?
A.-Yes,
Q. How much?
A.--My fuki and I paid eight dollars for it when it was new.