7

I.—9a.

H. C. HORSLEY.,

11. You say you employ a staff of nine?—Or ten. I think there are nine names on that slip. and it is one short. 12. Do any of your- people gel a day off on Sunday?- -Sunday is our quietest day in the week. The housemaids have to make the beds and the cook has to get the dinner, but from 2 o'clock there is practically nothing done. Some one has to get the tea, of course. 13. How iiiaiu extra hands do you consider you would have to employj —Three extra hands. 11. To give ten people one day off? —Yes, to give one full day off. l,"i. How would three extra hands get their time in? —We do a large business in the middle of the day and it lakes a full staff to work it. And my wife and I both work in the business, and it lakes us all our time to get through. Wo could not possibly work one hand short. We should have to employ a first-class cook to put up a first-class dinner the day our first-class cook was off. and you cannot imagine for a moment that we could go down every Friday, for instance, and pick up a cook to come in for the day. 16. You are reckoning, then, that you would have to employ two cooks instead of one? —We would have to employ two first-class cooks instead of one. 17. You would have to employ two cooks to let one cook off tor one day in the week?—We would have to engage one first-class cook for working one day a week. 18. You could gel nothing else out of him on the other live days? —Naturally he would lend a hand, but he is not required; we can gel along without him. And the probability is that that cook being about the kitchen all the rest of tin; week would be a source of trouble to you. ID. Would it make any difference to you if yon were allowed instead to give your cook fourteen days off ivery three months?—l have often tried to relieve niy cook ami give her a holiday. It has cropped up every now and again, when I have been asked. " Can I get away for a holiday for a fortnight?" And I have replied, "If you can find some one to take your place for a fortnight \oii can go. In the meantime I will see what I can do." h has never yet come off. You cannot engage a first-class cook for a fortnight. If a first-clase cook is out of work he is put into a job straight away. It is impossible to get a cook to come into a place for a fortnight. 20. Do you say thai it is impossible to find a servant who would act as cook for one day in the week and as relieving housemaid, we will say, for the other five days?— l do not say it is impossible to do such a thing, but I say it is impossible to conduct my business under those terms. Say that cook did not turn tip and T had a hundred and fifty people in for lunch ! 21. I am suggesting that you employ a servant to act in different capacities, to relieve each of the staff one day in the week?— Those servants have got to be pernianents if you are to carry on your business successfully. 22. The Chairman.] If you engaged a cook as a relieving cook could you get her to do housemaids' work as well?—Xo. Have you ever seen a woman who is capable of earning £3 a week doing a girl's work that you can get done for 18s. or £1? You just try it—or come down and watch me when I try it. 23. Mr. Veitch.] I only want an answer to my question?—lt is impossible, absolutely. 24. I understood you to say that your servants do not want these altered conditions? —.My servants are absolutely satisfied with the present conditions, and they have signed a statement to that effect. lam quite willing that any of the gentlemen in this room should go down and interview them privately, and they will tell you the same thing. I feel convinced that they would do so. 25. They do not want the extra time off? —If my girls want extra time off they come to the office and ask me if I will let them "ff. and I say " Yes." I have a good staff, and I recognize it. 26. How many boarders are there in your house?—l have only four permanent boarders. 27. Mr. Wilkinson.] For what term is your lease? —I have ten years' lease. 28. Still to go? —About nine years and a half to go. :>!>. Have you any evidence of the increased price of provisions—any documentary evidence that you could show us? —I have the receipts for groceries and meat 30. The Chairman.] With you?— No. 31. Mr. Long.] Aje you working under an award? —No, not under an award. 32. Are you working under the Shops Act?—We are under the Shops and Offices Act, I believe. An award was not made in Christchurch. There were two people in Ohristchurch opposed to an award, and it is not enforced in Christchurch, I understand. Mrs. Davits: Judge Sim said he thought it was absolutely impossible to give an award for private hotels. 33. Mr. Pryor.] You have some letters signed by employees in other houses, have you not? Yes. [Documents handed in.] These are only from such places as T have been able to touch up from here. 34. You got those since you came here?— Yes, by this morning's post. 35. They show that the workers are not asking for this alteration in the law? They show that the workers are quite satisfied with the present position. Mr. Veitch: 1 am not quite sure that the Committee can accept these as evidence. We do not know who the people are who have signed them. There is no evidence to show that they arc hotel employees. T would attach no importance to them. T submit they should not be accepted Mr. Pryor: If you will allow me I should like to say that unless these are accepted as honour able documents we shall be compelled to bring these people here from all over the Dominion and keep the Committee here for weeks. I am endeavouring not to do that, but to save the time of thy Committee as much as possible. T will guarantee to get proof of those documents if the Committee requires it. Mr. Anderson: It seems to me the documents are of very little value. We do not know how the? were obtained. If an employer <roes round with a list, his employees may not care about