Sessional_Paper_1901 — Page 812

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Police Department refusing to register as private coolies men known to be bad cha- racters, but who, quâ coolies, are capable servants, (2) from unwillingness on the part of private coolies to register.

In our judgment, if the result (1) anticipated by the sceptics concerning registra- tion is attained, it will prove an unmixed advantage to the community, which will thus be relieved of the presence of rogues masquerading as private coolies who, we should not be surprised, would also prove on inquiry to be to some extent at the bottom of the present difficulty.

As regards result (2) we believe that no persons who wish to become private coolies, would be deterred by free registration from entering private service,

By the draft Bill, which we have submitted, it is provided that a master may have in his employ for 48 hours unregistered coolies. This period of 48 hours will enable the coolie to become registered, and will give the master reasonable time to insist on the coolie being registered.

We do not oppose an enlargement of this period of 48 hours, but would point out that if the period is much enlarged, it will merely induce an aggravated condition of the present difficulty in retaining coolies.

19. As regards what other (if any) remedial measures should be taken, we suggest that the scale of fares for public rickshas, in Victoria and Kowloon, should be revised and reduced, at any rate so far as short time fares are concerned; for we are convinced that if the earnings of private chair and ricksha coolies could be placed more nearly on an equality with those of public ricksha coolies, the inducement to throw up private service for public employ would lose much of its force, the demand for higher wages would almost cease, and the difficulty of procuring and retaining private chair.and ricksha coolies would be largely diminished, if it did not altogether disappear.

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20. Chief Detective Inspector HANSON stated in his evidence that he had calcu- lated that it is possible for two men between them to make from $60 to $80 a month with a public ricksha; and one of the public ricksha coolies examined stated that his nett earnings, after paying for food and rent, amounted to $10 a month. The evidence also shows that a coolie will pay a considerable sum for the goodwill of a public ricksha.

21. At present, the minimum ricksha fare is 5 cents for a quarter of an hour. If a person takes a ricksha from the Clock Tower to the Hongkong Club or Hongkong. Bank he must pay 5 cents.

This seems to be an unnecessarily large fare. We therefore advocate ricksha rates of 2, 3, and 5 cents for 5, 10 and 15 minutes respectively. Distance fares, as in the case of gâris, might also be introduced. The difficulty of carrying the necessary money can be overcome by adopting a system of checks for these several amounts. These checks should be saleable at the Treasury and Police Stations in the Colony and could be redeemed by the coolies on presentation at the Treasury in office hours.

Great care would have to be taken to guard against the acceptance, for redemption, of forged checks, not issued by the Treasury or a Police Station.

As it is a practice for Chinese engaging public chairs and rickshas to bargain for rates below the tariff rates, it is clear that licensed coolies are willing to take passengers at reduced fares.

22. We are not aware whether the public revenue of $55,000 which was the sum. derived in 1900 from the licensing of carriages, chairs, &c. would be materially affected by our proposal, but we submit that, even though the public revenue from this particular source were decreased, it would be but a small consideration to pay for the advantages: resulting from a supply of private chair and ricksha coolies.

23. We have not entered into the question of the probable effect of the reduction in public fares for short times and distances upon the number of public vehicles which might continue to ply, but we see no reason to think that the approximate equalisation:

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