C.O. 17932 164 DEC 20 MAY 04!
HIS EXCELLENCY
THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT OF HONGKONG.
anunund and sui
SHEWETH :--
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE UNDERSIGNED.
1. Your Petitioners are owners and occupiers of houses in the Hill District of Hongkong, and, being desirous of preserving the said District as a place of residence for themselves, their wives and their children, and the wives and children of their successors in this Colony, beg to submit to Your Excellency that prompt steps should be taken permanently to reserve that particular part of this Colony for the exclusive residence of non-Chinese inhabitants.
2. The conditions of life in this Colony have changed greatly during recent years. The fall in the Gold value of the Dollar, the increased competition in all branches of trade and the consequent reduction of individual incomes have rendered it necessary for Europeans to remain longer than formerly in the Colony before being in a position to retire home with a competency.
3. Coincidently with this change in the conditions of life, there have been a vast increase both in the numbers and wealth of the Chinese population, and, the available area of building land in the lower levels of the City of Victoria being limited, the Chinese have gradually spread further and further along the lower levels until large areas which were formerly inhabited by Europeans are now mainly in the occupation of Chinese.
4. As long ago as 1888, the necessity for reservation of a European district was recognised, and provision was made by Ordinances Nos. 16 and 26 of that year for future prohibition of Chinese tenements and the prevention of overcrowding in houses already erected and to be erected in certain districts of the City of Victoria, but these Ordinances have not prevented the practical absorption by Chinese of a large proportion of the area intended to be thus reserved.
5. Should this process of absorption by Chinese extend to the Peak District, and it is not more unlikely than the absorption of the European District of Victoria must have seemed to the framers of Ordinance No. 16 of 1888, very serious results to the health of Europeans and their families would follow. There being no other place for them to go to, they would then be driven to reside below, where the conditions are highly prejudicial to their health. The Hill District is undeniably the healthiest part of the Colony for all those to whom life in the tropics presents the disadvantage of an unnatural environment; in fact, it is the only accessible part of the Colony which is fitted to be a healthy residential quarter for people accustomed to a temperate climate.