'The Tenants' Association met to discuss the decision of the Government to allow the Rents Ordinance to expire on June 30. The Ordin-nee was enacted in 1922 to keep down the rents demanded by landlords from becoming extortionate, because at that time there was a scarcity of houses, and many people from troubled Canton had moved "down to Hongkong. A over-crowding of tenements. at Home was met by the enactment, of the Rent Restriction Acts, 1920, and the local Ordinance is' based largely on the Home Statute. The Association thinks of taking steps to petition. the Government to continue the Ordinance, as its expiration will give the landlords another opportunity to increase! rents or: turn out tenants who refuse to pay' the higher rate. Failing this, they will request that at least certain provisions of the Ordinance should be retained.
Tt seems, however, that as many) new houses have been erected in ud round the city since 1922, and as the problem of over-population has been relieved. by the exodus of, large number of emigrants to Canton and elsewhere at the beginning, of the strike last July, vacant houses are in evidence everywhere, Their owners are therefore obliged to let them to tenants at a reasonable or even low rent. The Ordinance has served its purpose, and its prolongation is no longer necessary.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.