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4th October, 1901.
WILLIAM JOSHUA SAUNDERS sworn:
The Chairman.--You are Secretary of the Union Insurance Society of Canton, are you not ?
A.---I am.
Q.—And have you been in the Colony since 1885 or 1886 ?
A. Since 1886.
Q.-We asked you to come here to-day because we wanted to know your views on two points; first, as to the advisability of registering or licensing private chair and ricksha coolies, and, secondly, on a somewhat debated point as to whether, in the event of registration being enforced, it should be made penal for a master to engage unlicensed or unregistered private chair or ricksha coolies. Now, in answer to the Circular of questions which we sent out, I think you stated that you had no difficulty in procuring private coolies?
A. I have never had any difficulty.
Q.-And have you had any difficulty in retaining them?
A. Whenever a coolie wanted to go I let him. I never tried to retain a coolie against his will.
Q. Have you had any difficulty, when they went away, in replacing them?
A.--None.
Q.--How did you effect the replacing?
A.--I told my boy to get another coolie.
Q. And he invariably succeeded ?
A.--I think on certain occasious it has been one or two days before he got one.
Q. How do you procure your coolies as a rule?
A.-I generally procure them through the boy. Occasionally I have had to get
a new set because they all went away.
Q-Have you a Compradore?
A. We have an office Compradore.
Q. Do you ever apply to him for coolies?
A.-I have never had to go to him for coolies.
Q. Are you in favour of the registering or licensing of private chair and ricksha coolies?
A.-As far as I am concerned, at present, I am quite against it.
Q.-Will you give us your reasons for that?
A.-I know nothing about what the result of previous registration of servants has been here, but it is objectionable as being an interference with the liberty of contract. If it had been a paying thing it would have been done in England. Everybody wants to get their servants under their control. You may have evidence.
to show that it has paid in other places.
The Chairman. We have before us an Ordinance in force in Ceylon, dated from the '70s, for the registration of domestic servants only. Of course we all know there
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