its place.
Though he does not venture to make the assertion from his personal knowledge, Mr A. Matheson states he has "heard" that the supply of provisions at Hongkong is all monopolized by one individual from whom the Government collects £1,500 a year. There are four conspicuous markets in four different parts of the Town, rented by four different persons, and so far are these four separate markets from having the monopoly of provisions that not any single shop of the hundreds in Hongkong is debarred from selling any provisions whatever, except meat and fish, the indiscriminate exposure of which would be a nuisance. An honorable member of the Committee, Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, pushed Mr Matheson on this point with searching questions, which sufficiently neutralized the mischievous tendency of the Witness's first assertions.
The fact is that one main reason which brings the whalers from the Pacific to Hongkong is the cheapness and abundance of the supplies, and the absence of all shipping dues whatever. Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, who had commanded a man-of-war from the age of eighteen, was of opinion that Hongkong was as cheap and well supplied a station as most that he had ever visited, and it has only existed as a Colony since 1842.
With regard to the Opium farm, to which the pretended failure of the Colony is attributed, this has been since altered into separate licenses to Opium shops, precisely the same as licenses for retailing wine and spirits. No apparent change has resulted from this except the silence of the objectors to the former system. The Colony continues to prosper as usual; neither more nor less.
After what has gone before, it becomes surprising to find Mr. A. Matheson assert
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