1902
1906
363
£ s.d.
s.d.
1 box of "kond"
0.23
4.6 0.24
6.5
1 lb. mutton
0.20
1 bottle of beer
0.38
4 0.26
7.6 0.45
7.8
1.0.1
During the same period the wages of servants have
risen 20% and the price of the passage from Hongkong to
Kowloon 50% Rents have risen from 40 to 50%.
10
The increase in the cost of living has had the ef-
fect, according to the officials, of forcing them to
send home their wives and children, without there being
any prospect of their being able to have them out
again; they have bean obliged to give up their houses, sell their furniture and live in Hotels or Boarding-
houses; some have even been obliged to give up their life-insurance policies. Economies for the journey
home had become impossible.
The Secretary of State for the Colonies had re-
turned a negative answer to a former application of the Hongkong officials, pointing out that they were
better paid than the Civil Servants in the majority of
other Colonies.
To this they replied that they were indeed unable to deny the truth of that statement, but that they
were nevertheless in a position to prove that they
were