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RATES OF REMUNERATION.
In estimating the value of a sterling salary in Hongkong, a factor of supreme importance is the question of exchange. During the years 1919 to 1921 the value of the Hongkong dollar has varied between 28. 4d. and Gs. 3d., with violent rises and falls. It will be seen, there- fore, that a sterling salary when expressed in dollars will vary within very wide limits, while the purchasing power of the dollar remains practically unaltered. The Colonial Government and some of those firms whose European Staffs are paid on a sterling basis have adopted special exchange rates to obviate the hardships which would otherwise result from these Anctuatione in the value of the dollar. The salaries paid by the Government to the following classes of officers may be taken as an index of the general rates of pay for Europeans obtaining in Hongkong:-
Cadet Officers
Crown Solicitor
Assistant Crown Solicitor
Chief Clerk, Colonial Secretariat
First Clerk, Colonial Secretariat
Medical Officers -
Nursing Sisters –
Senior Masters, Education Department
Masters, Education Department
£ 400-£1,200
£1,000-£1,200
£ 600-£ 800
£ 600-£ 800
£ 400-£ 600
£ 600-£1,000
£170-£ 225
£ 750-£ 850 £100-£ 750
Assistant Mistresses, Education Department £ 300-£ 400
Engineers. Public Works Department
Senior Overseers, Public Works Department
Overseers, Public Works Department Senior Sanitary Inspectors
Sanitary Inspectors -
£ 460-£ 950
& 400-£ 480
£ 260-£ 360
€ 400-£ 480
£ 220-£ 360
Revenue Officers
€ 220-£ 360
Chief Police Inspector and Chief Detective
Inspector
€ 500-£ 600
Police Inspectors
£ 400-£ 450
Police Sub-Inspectors
£ 320-£ 360
Police Sergeante
£ 220-£ 300
Police Constables
£ 160-£ 200
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The cost of hotel accommodation for a single person varies from $145 to $250 per mouth, not inclusive of drinks, electric fans, and fires. The rates for a married couple would be from $240 to $400.
Boarding house accommodation for a single person may be put at $125 to $200 a month; for married couples, perhaps $200 to $350.
If a private servant be not kept, tips to the house servants would have to be added to the above.
¿
Wages of native servants vary from $12 to $30 per month. married couple of limited means, with no family, would probably be able to manage with servants whose wages would total not more than $40 to $60 a month. For people in better circumstances, and for larger families, the wages bil? might amount to anything from $80 to $150 a month.
As a rough general estimate, the all round expenditure of a senior Government Officer or senior Member of a large Europeau firm, with a family of three or four persons, might be put at from $800 to $1,000 a month; of a junior, also with family, at $450 to $650: and of a European of the artisan class, with family, $250 to $350 according to size of family, habits, etc. In all these estimates it is assumed that free quarters or rent allowances are provided,
The following are the present (1921) prices of some of the usual articles of consumption
(a) Locally raised :
Beef
Mutton
Pork
Chicken
Capon Duck
18 to 38 cents per lb.
25 42
15
J:
11
35 60 ++
20 14
"
32 55
30 40
55 70
17
40 cents each
22 25
Turkey Pigeon
22
Snipe
"
>
Quail
18 20
15
14
Partridge
Pheasant
Fish:
Carp
Cod fish
80 90
$1.25 to $1.75 each
about 24 cents per lb.
20
31
The pension rights and security of Government service aud, on the other hand, the greater scope for individual enterprise in private employment are, of course, factors which must be taken into account in any comparison of rates of remuneration,
ACCOMMODATION AND COST OF LIVING.
House rents in Hongkong are very high. For this reason the Government and many of the large European firms either provide free quarters for their European employees or grant rent allowances in addition to salaries. The following, on which Government rent allow- ances are based, may be considered as reasonable rents :--
Salary not exceeding £600
Salary £600-£900
Salary £900-£1,200 -
Salary exceeding £1,200
Rent $120 per month.
15
$150
15
19
$200
+
$250
11
זי
Mullet
Oysters
Perch
Pike
Plaice
Turbot
Crabs
23
51
32
•
Ferring
39
+
24
35
Lobsters
11
36
71
Mackerel
53
20
20
32
Prawns
40
aaaagge
20
*
11
24
30 +
Salmon
40
Shrimps
36
Soles
J
22
24
28
Page 30Page 31
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Fruit:
Almonds Apples
about 45 cents per 1,
32
>>
Bananas
Carambola
14
1
པལ་
4
Pears
12 11
1.
Persimmons
10
Grapes
Oranges
30 15
Fegetables:
Long Beans
about 12 cents per lb.
Cabbage
Carrots
Lettuce
20
11
8
Mushrooms
Onions
Parsley
"
2
門
8
10
་་
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Radish
14
Spinach
5
H
Tomatoes
18
"
21
Beel root
3 cents ench
Cucumbers
15
11
!
Cauliflower
15
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