Hongkong's housing problem is just now even more- pressing than the perennial one of water supply. For months past fugitives from political discord and fiscal oppression have been pouring into Hongkong, by thousands and tens of thousands, The Prices paid for land and houses are fantastic. I was told of one comparatively smal! house in May Road, the highest level on the Peak on which Chinese may dwell, surrounded by about an acre of land, which changed hands first for $160,000, then for two lakhs, three lakhs, four lakhs. One informant told me it touched the half million, but I believe this was an exaggeration. There are Chinese families—the thing modest enough to pals expression seldom implies any-respond with Western ideas of a family—paying $20 a month to herd together in a single room and that not big. The Government's rent restriction ordinance, extended beyond the term originally meant in order to re lieve the pressure, assists the small man to some extent. But in not a few cases owners are tearing down old streets and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.