636
A-I did not take it as including Coolies.
Q-By wages you of course mean Coolies employed in and about Godowns?
A-Yes.
Q-You did not allow for skilled men to carry on the business?
A-No.
Q-Don't you know that Mr. Howard was getting $300 per month for managing this business?
A-I did not know that.
Q-I suppose these new Godowns that were put up would have more modern appliances than Mr. Howard's ?
A-There is practically no difference. There is no machinery in any of the Godowns; they still have the same old wooden ladder.
Q-Don't they leave more space now for ventilation ?
A-Passing through a new Godown the other day, I saw every window shut. They don't like ventilation; Flour Godowns have all the windows shut.
Re-examination of Witness by Mr. Calthrop, Counsel for the Claimants:-
Q-When you made Valuations Nos. 1 and 4, was it not your opinion that, by conversion into an Inland Lot, the value of the land alone was depreciated 50
per cent. ?
A-Yes.
Q-Then land on the Praya, having a sea-frontage, is worth double the value of an Inland Lot?
A-Undoubtedly.
Q-With regard to the property that has been sold in 1881, you say it was sold for $80,000, but you know as a matter of fact that it was $85,000; I mean the Register shewed that ?
you ?
A-I do not know; I was not here. The date of the sale was 1881.
Do you know that Mr. Stephens bought it from the Mortgagees?
A-I do not know.
Q-Assuming that it was bought on a Mortgagees' sale, would it influence
A-Yes, of course it would. The Mortgagees might have forced the sale.
Q With regard to the value of the property in 1895 and 1898, assuming that it had still remained a Marine Lot, is it not your opinion that it would have been worth more ?
A-Probably.
Q-You assume that the $105,000, which you read to us from the Ordinance, was for 21,000 square feet, that is $5 per square foot ?