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Mr. Wilcox. Have you heard of any cases where coolies have been intimidated from entering employ or driven to leave their employment through intimidation ?
A.-I have heard people say that, when they dismissed their coolies, they could not get any others and they supposed it was those who had been dismissed that pre- vented others from coming.
Q.-There are a good many cases in which there have been grounds for strong suspicion that coolies have been prevented from entering employment for some reason or other, probably because the old coolies had given the house a bad character. that so?
A. Yes, that is what is often done. The character of the house is given.
Q.-But don't think there is any guild?
you
Is
A.-This is not the only time I have made inquiries. I made inquiries a year
ago
and got the same answer. Most distinctly and emphatically I have been told that there are no guilds.
Q.--In the event of registration being recommended and adopted would you think it desirable to do anything towards regulating the wages for ricksha and chair coolies?
A.--It seems a very difficult question for Government to fix any definite scale of remuneration for labour.
Q.-I suggested that because the difficulty has arisen from a sort of competition in the market for the services of those men. In some cases they get their ten and-a-half to twelve dollars and many families can't afford to give more than eight and-a-half or nine dollars. Do you think it is a matter of supply and demand?
A.-I rather pin my faith to supply and demand. Suppose you did fix a certain rate of wages, how would enforce what
you
fix? The Government rate used to be you six dollars a month. It is so still, I think.
Mr. Badeley.-No, it is seven-fifty now.
Witness. Well, for many years it was six dollars.
Mr. Wilcox. You can't get them at that now, and it will be necessary to revise the rate again, I think. Do you think that anything could be done towards increasing the supply of coolies by means of or through a farmer or monopolist?
A.-I don't know. Monopolies don't seem to succeed very well as a rule. There seem to be plenty of men in the Colony. It is not exactly a want of men at present.
Q.-You are not inclined to believe there is a want of men?
A.-I don't think there is.
Q.-Only an unwillingness to work in that direction ?
A.-An unwillingness to do work they were willing to do before, and an unwil- lingness unless they get these enhanced rewards for their labour.
Q.--You are aware that there have been complaints that coolies have refused to do little jobs they have been asked to do?
A.-I don't know whether that is worse now. I know that all along there have been complaints. In some houses there were coolies who would not do anything but carry the chair. Other families would get their coolies to do house work as well. I
ey that has always more or less been a source of trouble.
"
The Chairman.-Do you think it is due to difference in the places where the me from? Do you think the dispositi Cantonese is so different from
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