A. Yes.
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The Chairman.-You have never heard it suggested that there were possibilities of squeezing or illicit demands being made by the Inspectors ?
A.-I have never heard-no one has come to me personally.
Q.-No Chinaman has ever told you that ?
A.-No.
Mr. Lau Chu Pak.-Have you never heard anything directly?
A-Only from the newspapers.
Q-Not even from your Chinese customers?
A.--I have never heard of a single instance, where an Inspector has been bribed by the giving of money, or had anything done for him.
Mr. Shelton Hooper.-Have none of your clients ever complained about being called upon to do some things which were not necessary?
A.-No, I dont know of any case like that, because they dont know the Ordinance and they dont know what can be enforced and what not.
Q. And they come to you to advise them if it is necessary?
A. Yes.
Q-And in every case, you dont take the trouble to take up a floor to examine it? You comply without examination ?
A.-No, not in concreting houses. There are cases where-the cutting away of light-I have applied for exemption and got it.
Q.-With regard to glazed areas, many cases have come before you in which notices have been served on your client to increase the glazed area of the floor?
A.--Yes.
Q-Have you ever come across cases in which if you carried that out, it would endanger the building?
A. Yes.
Q. An old building, I am speaking of.
A.—An old building. Even new buildings, too.
Q. And about how many of these cases do you think you have had since the Ordinance was passed three years ago?
A.-Probably half a dozen cases, where I have applied for exemption on account of the walls not being sufficiently stable to admit of any alterations on the walls.
Q-And dont you think this applies to the majority of Chinese houses in this City- endangers them-taking into account their age, the way they are built, and the liability to typhoons?
A. It is bad to cut a wall at anytime of course.
Q-But would you not go so far as to say it applies to the majority of Chinese houses?