a
56
value in the United Kingdom. The reason for this greater value is not far to seek, when it is borne in mind that to their price cost must be added the royalty to merchants and others for the transport of their goods those thousand miles away, as we are situated, from the centres of production.
6. Your petitioners therefore beg to represent, with due respect, that the principle of compensation applies as well to themselves as to the other officers who have been and are still drawing the allowance.
7. Your petitioners fear, lest it might encroach upon your time and patience to bring forward statements, in detail, to show that the cost of living in the Colony is now much more than it has been in the past. The truth of this fact has already been conceded, as can be seen in Sir William Des Vœux's despatch No. 989 of 23 September 1889 to your predecessor in office. Referring to that despatch, the Marquess of Ripon, in his despatch No. 24/0 of 28th November 1892 to the Governor, was also of the opinion that "the cost of living in Hongkong had grown very considerably in the case of officers domiciled in the East, as well as in the case of officers appointed from England."
8. The increase did not stop in 1892, but has been steadily going on in a progressive ratio up to the present time, with prospects of further enhancement in the future. Witness the great increase in the value of house property. The Assessor reports in 1896 that the rateable value of property went up 24 per cent in 1896-97 as compared with 1895-96. Accepting therefore the increase in 1896-97 over 1895-96 as the average rate of enhancement in the rateable value of house property in the city of Victoria, the increase for the last ten years represents 274 per cent. An increase which is by no means rated. That this increase will not end here is reasonable to assume, seeing that the requirements of the Government upon land owners to comply with the sanitary measures recently initiated will result in still higher rents.