I think that the rural area means the New Territories nowadays, not the other cities where outside Victoria City.
According to my limited knowledge about weather, the other part of cities (maybe defined as "rural area" in 1893) such as North Point or Kowloon City have lower chance to have snow because of the lowland area (but I do not know if there was snow in 1893).
Since the weather is colder in New Territories such as Tai Po, there is higher chance to have snow.
The explanation is just my guess, or if one likes, one can try to find information to prove. I just use the information to guess what is the possible answer. Sorry for any mistake until one can show that there was lati-snow in which part of rual area in 1893.
