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Q. When he left your service, what did you do?
A.—I returned it to him, but if a servant misbehaved himself I sent it direct back to the Registrar General's Department, making any statement I liked as to how the servant had behaved.
Q.--Section 27 of the Ordinance No. 7 of 1866 says it shall not be lawful for any person other than Chinese to engage or employ any servants who are not provided with a certificate of registration, and by section 32 penalties are stated for breaches of this Ordinance. Do you remember any case in which persons who had engaged servants not provided with the certificate of registration were proceeded against under section 32 ?
A.-I know there were a few cases, but the Ordinance before it was repealed was allowed to be almost a dead letter.
Q.-Do you know how that was?
A.I fancy it did not work as satisfactorily as it was thought it might.
Q.-But why did it not work so satisfactorily as it was hoped to do?
A.--Well, if a servant behaved badly and left his employer, he would pass on his ticket to another man and the new man would come in and swear positively that he had been in the place marked on the ticket and that he was accustomed to do the work and so on, and the tickets were passed on regularly I believe. I could not swear to any particular case, but there was no doubt that they were passed on. Consequently, they formed no guarantee of the number of places the man had been in or of his character or ability.
Q.--And how do you think that the prevention of the transfer of register certifi- cates might have been effected?
A.-Well, I think there was a great want on the ticket and that was the want of a photograph so as to identify the men. There was no means of identifying a man who produced a ticket to you.
Q.-I understand that at present you are not employing chair coolies?
A.-I am not at present.
Q. Can you tell us your latest experience in regard to chair coolies?
A.--When I came back from England, a few years ago, I wanted to get four men and I found I could not do so. The men knew that I walked a great deal and knowing that I walked down town from the Peak, they were afraid of having to follow me and perhaps carry me a few hundred feet up and down, and I could not get men at all. I told them simply that I wanted four coolies and they asked me whether I was to walk down or go down in the Tram.
Mr. Badeley. They want people to go down in the Tram?
A. Yes. I then tried to get three men and then came down to two.
The Chairman.And kept them for the Tram only?
A.--Kept them for the Peak.
Mr. Wilcox. They absolutely refused to enter your service unless you went down by the Tram?
A.-Well, the Chinaman does not put it in that way.
The Chairman. Although you walked most of the way, yet they feared you might want to ride some of the way, both down and up. Do you think that was the reason why you had difficulty in engaging four coolies?
A.-No doubt it was.
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