OP Y.
Enclosure 1.
76
Hongkong, 13th. October, 1910.
The Harbour Master.
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Sir,
IRES?
CO
11462
Prat 8 APR |
I have the honour to beg leave to address you
the present representation in the matter of my salary.
When I joined the Hongkong Government Service
in November, 1907, it was on the understanding that my salary would
be £240 per annum rising by triennial increments of £15 to the
maximum of £285.
The first of such three yearly increments falls
due next month when I shall be in receipt of a yearly salary of
£255.
I desire respectfully to point out that since
my wife's coming out to the Colony with my three children from
Australia last March the provision of living quarters for my
family ashore has had to be seen to no sanction being obtainable
for my family living on board the tender "Stanley". The rent of a
portion of a house at Kowloon in which my family has quarters is
842.50 which represents quite twenty per cent of my present salary
per month. After deducting this £4 from the £20 I am in receipt
of each month I am left with only £16 wherewith to provide for and
maintain my wife and children besides myself, not to mention the
cost of the children schooling, school fee alone for a single boy
is 85 permonth.
Having regard to the present conditions of the
cost of living in Hongkong I venture to believe that you will agree
that my salary barely suffices for the upkeep off my family in a
position compatible with the duties of an officer in charge of the tender which besides doing the routine duties of such a vessell
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