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the present difficulty, that is, that a street or cargo coolie can earn more money than a private chair coolie. The evidence of Mr. SAUNDERS, pages 92 to 99, is also very strongly against registration, on the grounds of interference with freedom of con- tract (question 3, page 94) and also of the danger of intensifying the present dis- comforts (question 4, page 94) "There is a limited supply of these people and, if you weed them out, there will be an insufficient supply." Mr. SAUNDERS' evidence appears to have been rather a resistance to persistent arguments of the Commis- sion in favour of registration making employment of unregistered coolies an offence, than the volunteering of his views on the questions under discussion.
Mr. BREWIN, the Registrar General, declared himself in favour of compulsory registration, question 6, page 57, but the answers to the questions from 4, page 58, to question 7, page 59, show some of the practical difficulties of identification. The examination of the witnesses shows that the Commission entered upon the inquiry with strong views upon the advisability of compulsory registration and of the necessity for reducing the fares of the public ricksha coolies and chair coolies so that their earnings would cease to induce private chair and ricksha coolies to elect to serve as public licensed coolies rather than to engage as private coolies. Inspector HANSON said, question 3, page 15, that two men can make from sixty to eighty dollars a month with a public ricksha, but at question 7, page 16, he places the probable duration of a coolie's ricksha life at three years, while Ngan Wan Chi, in answer to question 11, page 90, shows that over ten of his ricksha men have died, because they had a long run over the new road from Kowloon to Shatin.
Mr. BREWIN, in answer to question 6, page 60, said that cargo coolies are the best paid. The question at the bottom of the page assumes that in such case the reduction of the ricksha and chair fares would not have much effect in driving the men into private employ. Mr. FUNG WA CHUN, question 10, page 65, placed the earnings of a street coolie with a pole at 40 cents a day while other coolies make $15 a month. And that the increase in wages is not confined to Hongkong is shown by Mr. LAU CHU PAK (questions 3 to 12, page 71) by which it appears that in South China wages have risen 30% in the villages. The first three witnesses agree that compulsory registration will probably produce a strike.
I have analysed the evidence thus carefully as I consider it highly undesirable to interfere with sound economic principles except very strong local reasons are shown that I cannot find in the evidence given before the Commission. Freedom of the port and freedom of contract are two principles under which Hongkong has grown and prospered. The original Registration Ordinance was repealed because the European population showed that they did not care to avail themselves of its provisions, and the passing of such an Ordinance as is now recommended might bave far reaching consequences, extremely inconvenient to Europeans dependent upon the services of chair coolies. It has been shown in the evidence that Regis- tration Offices have been tried on more than one occasion and have failed from want of support, and it is evident that any master who desires to be satisfied as to the character of his chair coolies, can refuse to engage any coolie who does not produce some evidence of his character. All that is required is a common agree- ment between a number of employers. Or, if a number of people find it difficult to obtain coolies, it is evident from the statements of Chinese witnesses that there are men in the Colony who would undertake to supply them if arrangements were made with them. Mr. HANSON points out, on page 14, the objection the Chinese coolies have to many restrictions, and it seems to me that compulsory registration would reduce the labour supply and further raise the wages.
But the question as to fares and as to the issue of tickets as recommended in para. 21 might be considered in Executive Council. In para. 20 Inspector HANSON'S statement is quoted. These amounts may possibly have been earned in one of the busy months before the large increase of 1,200 rickshas, but, granting the
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