CO129-350 - Public Offices - 1908 — Page 370

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