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It is not possible to compare either the price of goods or the amount of salary in a colony where the currency fluctuates in value with the price of goods or amount of salary in other Colonies where there are no exchange fluctuations. For even if the comment concerning the cost of living were favourable when the dollar was at 1/-, it has ceased to be favourable when the dollar is at "/4d. We submit that the only way of stating the case is that the price paid for goods to-day in Hongkong does not compare favourably with the price paid for similar goods 2 years ago; because the purchasing value of the salaries paid to Civil Servants to-day compared very unfavourably with the value of those paid 2 years ago. But even taking the dollar at 1/-, both rent and the price of commodities in Hongkong are considerably higher than that in other Colonies, some of which some of us have had experience. Hongkong is probably the dearest Crown Colony in the Empire, and this is so even with the dollar at 1/-. There are many things which tend to make it so; the expenses of living are far higher than in any other Colony and they are enormously increased by many causes; the chief of which is the rapid deterioration owing to the climate of clothes, books and stores: So far as European tradesmen are concerned the price of goods has for long been at the rate of one dollar to one shilling charged in England, and there is no sign of any alteration being made in this respect. This excessive scale of profit is accounted for in part by high rents and rapid deterioration of goods. It compares unfavourably with prices in other Colonies within our experience; even where customs duties are charged, which at most add 10% to the price. High rent is the keynote of the situation, and it is certain that if rents are high everything else will be high in proportion. The considerable rise in wages paid to Chinese servants is in fact partly due to the enhanced rents which they themselves have to pay for their families.
It is reasonable that the Secretary of State should realize that rates of salaries paid in the Colony, rents for
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