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Q-And this comes to about one per cent on the amount of the bill, does it not?
A.-As a compensation for my trouble in making out the bill, they give me a small present of two fowls, sometimes some cakes; some people none.
Hon. A. LISTER.-Well, but to have again and again in the course of months to write out bills as long as this!
Hon. F. B. JOHNSON.-You don't mean to say you do this for a fowl once a year. Look at that long bill. There are more than three here; let us go through them.
Seven bills in witness' hand-writing are found in the bundle. He explains that he thought they were duplicates.
Q.-Hon. F. B. JOHNSON.-Seven bills in one month! Now do you mean to say you take all that trouble for nothing?
A.--I don't take anything.
Q. We have got it in evidence you do.
A.-Well, sometimes in a year they go and buy the paper themselves or give me
a dollar and ask me to go and buy it.
Q. Hon. A. LISTER.-Where were you educated?
A. In the Central School.
Q.-Now, in the course of this inquiry, although we have not looked into the bills to any great extent I may say I have seen fifty bills in your hand-writing. Now, don't you think it would be much wiser for you to say, what you are perfectly entitled to say, “I do; I write these bills for these men; it is not my business; if they want it done they must pay me for doing it, just the same as they pay for their clothes or food." I think you are quite entitled to take up that position, and say it is not your work, as it certainly is not your work. Whether you can be allowed to go on doing it is another question, but we are not going to make a charge against you. To be paid for doing work is a very different thing from taking money for neglecting your duty.
A. They request me to do it, and I do it.
They don't give me any money at all.
Q.-You cannot expect us to think you take this labour, which must come to some hours' work, just out of good nature? Now, you know perfectly well that in all these things Chinese arrange a custom. They say the custom is so and so. Now I should
like you to tell us what the custom is in this case. We are told it amounts to about one per cent on the amount of the bill, given partly in presents and partly in money. We have one man who comes and tells us he gave you $5 in money, and presents amounting to three or four dollars more. We have no objection to your receiving these presents if you will only be frank about it.
A.-I supplied the paper, and it may be for the ink, paper, and pen, and being at night time I want oil. That is what he paid me for.
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