Sessional_Paper_1901 — Page 958

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(b.) and rent them to a headman of coolies at a moderate rental which will, at the same time, give Government a fair return for its money. The headman mentions a rental of 50 cents per head of coolie accommodated: in the house, or $10 a floor capable of accommodating 20, coolies, as what be considers a reasonable rental

1;

(c.) the rate of wages for the coolies supplied by the headman to be $9 a

month for Peak or Lower Levels;

(d.) licensing and registration of all the coolies supplied by the headman in

the same manner as coolies for public vehicles and chairs are licensed ;

(e.) enactment making it peral to employ an unlicensed coolie.

If Government is not prepared to build the coolie houses, the headman will build them himself, if he can come to reasonable terms with Government as to cost of site, etc. But in the event of his building, he must charge $10 a month per coolie.

In my opinion it would, for many reasons, be better for Government to build.

I think something ought to be done. It is no part of the duties of the Captain Superintendent of Police to engage coolies for residents, and applications are now made so frequently that I shall soon have to decline my good offices. The service involves time and worry.

F. H. MAY, 2/8/01.

P.S.-I advise that if licensing is decided on, as I hope it will be, the coolies be tackled first. When they have been dealt with, in-door servants can, if desired, be wheeled into line.

F. H. M.

APPENDIX H.

SIR,

Letter from the Honourable the Captain Superintendent of Police.

LC

DAMPFER PRINZESS IRENE," 7th September, 1901.

I would like to add to the evidence I gave before you on the 3rd instant, the following remarks in view of possible objections to putting a monopoly of supplying private chair and jinricksha coolies into the hands of one or more persons.

The licensing of these coolies would, in itself, give large and much needed control over them, and if it were adopted, it would probably be found that the coolies, like those for licensed public vehicles, would get licensed through headmen of their own.

Coolies of this class who come to the Colony to look for work are strangers to the place, and rarely have any money to keep them while looking for work. What would probably happen would be that they would ask the keeper of the lodging-house where their clansmen stop in the Colony and whither they would go on first arrival, probably under the guidance of some clansman who had been here before, or perhaps some head- man of licensed chair and jinricksha coolies, to put them in the way of getting licensed and to pay the necessary fee; and thus, in course of time, a set of headmen would spring up who would make a living out of supplying the market with private licensed coolies, just as there are headmen who supply the Colony with its licensed coolies: