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A.-Yes, I have not verified the statements that have been made to me, but I know there are people who don't care what they give to their chair coolies and run up so doing. I may say that the other day, application was made to me for chair coolies at Seymour Terrace and I could not get them under $9. But some indoor work was required of them, and the applicant had already offered $9 before application was made to me.
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Mr. Wilcox. That is not so far up the hill. It is only a moderate distance. is not like Queen's Gardens.
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Mr. Wilcox.-1 would like to ask Mr. May if he knows and could give us any in- formation as to the number of cases in which coolies-chair coolies in private employ- have been convicted or charged with having committed burglary or run away with property belonging to their employers ?
A.-I could not give you the information offhand.
Mr. Wilcox.--No, I suppose not the exact number.
The Chairman.-Could you have a return made up in the Police Department and also by reference to the Magistrate's Department?
A.-Such cases have come to my knowledge, but there have been more cases in the case of house servants. Of course, they have greater opportunities. i have had many cases in which house-boys and coolies have stolen from their employers and gone away and I have found them re-employed. I have even written to their employers and told them that they had got a thief for a boy and they say, "Well, so long as he does not trouble me, I don't mind."
The Chairman.This is beyond the scope of our inquiry.
Mr. Badeley. I should like to ask Mr. May are private chair coolies and public ricksha and chair coolies drawn from the same source or are they separate?
A.-They belong to the same class.
Mr. Badeley.-Do they interchange? Does a man sometimes do private chair work and then take to running a ricksha, or do they stick to the one job?
A. They very often change. A private coolie will go and run a public ricksha three or four times a day and make some money.
Q-When men get their licences as public chair or ricksha coolies cancelled, do they sometimes go into private employ?
A. Yes, they sometimes do so.
Q. Would the fact of largely increasing the number of public rickshas have a considerable effect in taking away the available men for private chair coolies?
A. Yes, it will.
Q. Do you think that has been largely instrumental in causing the scarcity?
-Of course. We come back to the question of accommodation. If we had more accommodation, we would not have so much trouble. I feel sure of that.
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Q-Can you tell us how much a public ricksha coolie can earn as compared with a private chair coolie? Is it a much more paying concern ?
A.-It is a more paying thing to run a public ricksha. I can't enter into the figures for carrying a chair, but I don't imagine that is a very lucrative business, except at the Peak,
Q.-There is no restriction on the number of chairs ?
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