H.—s

22

eleven men, running the following shifts : Ist, from 7.30 a.m. to 4.20 p.m. 2nd, from 12 a.m. to 2 p.m.; from 4.20 p.m. to 11.15 p.m. 3rd, from 7.25 a.m. to 3.40 p.m. 4th, from 8.36 a.m. to 8.40 p.m. sth, from 3.40 p.m. to 11.15 p.m. 6th, from 7.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. 7th, from 4 p.m. to 11.30 p.m. Bth, from 7.40 a.m. to 3.10 p.m. 9th, from 3.10 p.m. to 11 p.m. 10th. from 7.25 a.m. to 8.25 a.m. ; from 11.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. 11th, from 11.50 a.m. to 7 p.m. The wages and commission of these men are the same as on the Princes Street route —viz., £1 7s. 6d., £1 10s., or £1 12s. 6d. per week of seven days, and each make about 4s. commission in addition. They have two clear Sundays off duty in the eleven weeks, and they work from three to nine hours on the other nine Sundays, averaging about four hours taking the eleven Sundays through. 524. We have on the Ocean Beach Eoad only four conductors. For the first week a man works from 7.15 a.m. to 3.27 p.m.; the second from 3.27 p.m. to 11.10 p.m. ; the third week from 7.30 a.m. to 7 p.m., with two hours out of that for his dinner; fourth week from 2.20 p.m. to 8.10 p.m., also two hours —during which he takes the other man's car—for his dinner. Of Sundays, he has one off in eight; for two Sundays he works two hours and thirty minutes ; for two, seven hours ; and for two, eight hours. Sundays all come into the weekly wage. The wage is for seven days a week, and the wages of these four are £1 ss. a week each, with commission amounting to about 3s. weekly. 525. We have four boys, who are not tram-conductors but starters. They go down the Leith and pick up the branch cars on the valley. They take little money, and their commission is practically nothing. They only take a fare from a casual passenger. These boys are seventeen or eighteen years of age. The first week they work from 8.50 to 2 o'clock, and also from 3.45 to 8 ; the second week from 7.15 to 3.45 ; the third week from 7.20 to 9.20, and 3.44 to 10.30; and the fourth week from 2to 11 p.m. These boys are paid 18s. a week, and their commission may be put down as nothing. They have one Sunday off in eight; two Sundays they do a tea relieve of an hour; two Sundays they do two hours and twenty-seven minutes each; one Sunday, eight hours and twenty minutes; and the eighth Sunday, seven hours and twenty-five minutes. With the drivers we have nothing to do. 526. I notice m Fearnley's evidence that he was put on holiday traffic. We have only these thirty-three conductors, and two or three car-cleaners whom we fetch out on holidays, and all the men work from the time the cars come out in the morning till they finish at night, and occasionally we have to turn the Inspectors out, and I have turned one of the clerks out of the office for this work often before now. Fearnley is correct in saying that he worked from 7.25 in the morning till 9 o'clock at night. He did not refuse to take his car, but it came out without a conductor. Nobody knew in the office that he would not fetch it out, or I would have arranged for some one else. I posted up half a crown fine the next morning, which he refused to pay, and resigned straight away ; so that the half-crown was not stopped from him. 527. There is a great noise about these fines. The total amount of the fines stopped last year from all the men was £8 ss. 528. On holidays for every minute they work beyond their scheduled time they get 6d. per hour. 529. A man has ten minutes every trip during the hour. They all have that on an average, so that they have time to get tea or meals. The regular time which we give off for meals is an hour, but we do not give any particular time ; they arrange that among themselves. The length of tea relief will depend considerably upon the place where a man lives, but unless by mutual arrangement to the contrary there is a relief provided for the conductor of an hour for dinner on the long week. We are quite willing to give them an hour for meals if they are willing to take it. 530. We give no holidays at all, or practically none. Last year, about November time, we gave all the men who had been any length of time with us a day away, but there is no stated holiday. 531. The men refuse to take their meal-hour, because it breaks into their spare time. Then they have their turn to do the relief. The fourteen men have to run these cars, and if they can arrange it in any better way we are quite willing they should. 532. We keep no relieving conductors for holiday time ; it would never pay. 533. On holidays they only have the few minutes while the cars stand at the end of the run, and the cars are then generally behind time; but on the South Eoad they have an hour for the round trip, and a car cannot take more than twenty-three minutes to run to Caversham—the average time is seventeen minutes, leaving twelve or thirteen minutes at the end of each journey. 534. The cars are sometimes overloaded. The only way to remedy that woulu be to put on more cars ; but the traffic is so spasmodic, you do not know when more cars will be wanted. If we time-table more cars to-day probably the traffic would have altered altogether at the end of the week. On holiday times we put on a great number of extra cars. 535. The conductor has not power to prevent people going on a car. I have noticed the conductors try to prevent overcrowding, but people jump on the cars and you cannot keep them off. When cars have been too much loaded, so much so that the horses could not pull, we have called upon the police to interfere, and they did so. We have no legal power to remove people from the cars. 536. Providing the by-law of the Council had been upheld we should be liable to fine for overcrowding, and then we should have had power to turn people off the cars. 537. We would not attempt to start a car unless the horses were capable of pulling it. The mere fact of the car being overcrowded would not make a case of cruelty to animals, because we always have an extra horse on Princes Street hill, and ninety people would not be too many for three horses to pull in a car on the level. The pull on a tram-car is not more than 251b. per ton. Walter Newbury, hairdresser, examined. 538. I work at Mr. Barclay's hairdressers' shop, and my hours are from 8 a.m. till 9 and 9.30 every night, and to 12 on Saturdays. There is no work on Sundays.