THE HOUSEBOAT. 85 



owners. And all this could be done at a very trifling cost. Another outcome of such an 

 association as suggested might be that a better class of boat coolies at a fixed or tariff rate 

 of wages would always be at its service. For it is not impossible to conceive that some 

 arrangement might be made with the tea-shop keepers, who practically are a labour guild 

 and whose premises are the dumping ground of the boat coolie, to furnish reliable care- 

 takers for the boats when in port, and proper coolies and a headman for a trip. This in the 

 long run might prove a very satisfactory and economical arrangement. Then the lowdah 

 might be dispensed with, for in these days of steam launches he is a useless and expensive 

 luxury, for very few lowdahs look after the boat while lying idle in Shanghai and fewer 

 still know anything about the country. The lowdah is admittedly an overpaid man for 

 the work required of him and for the work which he does not do. Admit that there are 

 150 houseboats belonging to Shanghai owners, and that the lowdah's wages average 

 $12 a month, and the calculation is not difficult that something like $22,000 annually 

 is thus paid away. And for what amount of work ? Certainly not for three months' work 

 in the year. Again, as things go and have gone on for years, a miserable coolie is often 

 left in charge of half a dozen boats tied up together, while the well paid lowdahs are doing 

 "a bit of their own" on shore, or gambling in the tea shops, or inhaling the soothing 

 opium, the boats the while being as likely as not used as gambling dens for which, 

 doubtless, some little "consideration" finds its way into the pockets of the absentee 

 captains. All of which things might be obviated if responsible caretakers were put in 

 charge, and one caretaker and a coolie would be quite sufficient to look after half a dozen 

 boats. 



The advantages that such an association would seem to offer are a great saving in 

 wages, a better and more reliable coolie service than that now obtaining, and better care of 

 the boat when not in actual use, in themselves three great desiderata. 



