the outlay of a new Estate compared with
its immediate rental returns render the
revenue a provision of an adequate difficult task at the outset. No endeavour, however, shall be wanting on my part to effect
the desired end:
This having been declared a free-port for the first, the public seem to have been unprepared for any species of commercial taxation. With Your Lordship's authority, however, I have made up my mind to a harbour duty of no more than Sixpence per ton. Estimating the future
annual amount of Shipping at 200,000 tons, this may yield £5000, with little
Expense of Collection.
my previous despatch of the 12th Instant, pointed out the small chance of obtaining any income from the warehousing of Opium, inasmuch as
the old system of storing that drug in ships is universally practised, on the
obvious
ground of its being the cheapest and most convenient. The only prospect, then, that remains of converting Opium into a source of revenue is by taxing an article of consumption within the Colony.
I may here observe that Opium is
tacitly tolerated by the Chinese Government even at the Ports of regular
trade. I subjoin an extract from Mr. Lay's
report from Canton, which would seem to apply equally to the whole coast; and the willingness with which His Excellency Keying received any proposal for addressing him on the subject of legalizing the trade, leads me to hope that so desirable a measure is not
far distant.
While at Singapore, I obtained from
the ...