The answer, as well as the purposes of Police Revenue, including even the licence (or rather rent) of the Stone Quarries, and that of the Salt Contractor, who is answerable for the conduct of the Chinese with whom he is concerned.
The Police Assessment, being 5 Per Cent on the Rent of inhabited Houses, is £2,240. The remaining Revenue consists of £4,170 derived from the Fees and Fines of the Courts, and Official Fees paid into the Treasury; and lastly of Miscellaneous sums amounting all to £1,252.
Notwithstanding the approval of the Board of Trade to the tax formerly laid on the consumption of Opium, I was induced by the general impression that prevailed against it, to convert the Monopoly in the hands of a single individual into Licences to any number of Manufacturers and Sellers of opium within the Colony - as reported in my Despatch No 82 of 23rd July 1847. The principle of this latter tax being properly that of Licenses for selling wine, Beer, and Spirits, there can be no objections to the one applying to the other. The advantages of both are, that they combine a tax on vicious indulgences with the means of control over those who provide them.
This brief account of the Colonial Revenue may serve to correct some mis-statements that were made before a Committee of the House of Commons in 1847, on which subject I have to refer your Lordship to a more detailed notice transmitted in my Despatch No 12 of 17th January.
The Expenditure of 1865 was £66,726, in a great measure on account of Public Works. In 1846 it was reduced to £60,351. It has this Year been brought down to £50,959, from which deducting the local...