mimorandum on the difficulty by périlund Yyti Kami Pigpers
in obfcuring a home on this arrived in the Colony,
384
C.0.
24849
I avail myself of this opportunity of bringing to the notibe 08
of the Secretary of State certain facts which have occurred in my experience of renting houses in Hongkong: there is no doubt that if a scheme were sanctioned for Hongkong on similar lines to that already existing in Singapore it would be a very great boon to the Chief Justice.
On our arrival in the Colony we took rooms at the Peak Hotel, in order to look round for a house. There were then practically only two in the market, one which had a leaky roof and smoky
deklimming to the the midn chimneys, for which the landlord ncked $250 a month and one other; a small one, which had been let for $170, but which was raised for our special benefit to $250, which remained empty for 6 months and was then let for $150 a month. (These figures are exclusive of rates and taxes).
As this condition of affairs seemed likely to continue for a long time, Sir M. Nathan invited us to stop at Mountain Lodge, and when he went down to Government House he did for us what he had done on the previous winter for some civil servants, and
brunt min host allowed us to live in till a house should be discovered. The only house obtainable was The Eyrie, which was in a very ram-shackle condition. But Mr. Belilios then dying, his son consented to spend $4000 in repairs, on my taking the house on a 3 years lease at $210 a month. The repairs were finished by
end of May 1906, so that I was just a year in the Colony without a house, and if we had not come to terms with Mr. Belilios, I hardly know where we should have gone. The Hotel or Houses for short periods were the only alternatives. When wives go home, the husbands generally let the house for a high rent, but a year tenancy is practically the longest obtainable on the Peak. I do not propose to elaborate the question, but I suggest that it is not a very pleasant prospect for a Chief Justice to arrive
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