I
440
3.
-2-
The rents of buildings used for human habitation have been steadily and constantly rising for the last two or three years, and they have recently reached such a height as to impose a very serious burden on the tenants and to threaten to affect
It is probable that many of the prosperity of the Colony.
the recent labour disputes have been largely due to this cause, which of course tends, indirectly as well as directly, to in-
crease the cost of living.
4.
The Government are fully alive to the general objections to legislation of the present kind, e.g., the undesirability
of interfering with the ordinary working of economic laws,
the danger of discouraging building and so increasing the short- age of houses, and the risk of creating want of confidence by The situation, restriction of existing rights of property.
however,
became 80 acute that it seemed desirable to take ac-
tion in spite of these objections.
5.
The root of the trouble is the shortage of accommodation This appears to be partly due to the influx of refugees from the neighbouring province of Kwong Tung, who flee to Hongkong
It to escape the frequent disturbances in that province.
partly
may also be due to the-failure on the part of property owners and others to keep pace with the normal development of the
Colony.
The situation, however caused, has been made in- tolerable by two subsidiary factors, i.e., speculation in
It is house property and the greed of certain landlords. also aggravated by the system of farming out house property
which is very common in the Colony.
drive up rents because
Speculation tends to
each successive purchaser raises the
rents in order to obtain what he considers a satisfactory reburn