203
Board
of
Trade
ELF
18. The Opium Farm did not exist until the following year, 1845. See the date of the Ordinance.
The Opium Farm was not the aim of the Europeans (there were Europeans) who farmed it, indeed by Mr. Matheson's statement in 1848 he was a man without capital and therefore had nothing to lose. That he could get redress from the Police Courts is also incorrect. In the Police Records, I find only 2 cases in which the European Farmer applied for the assistance of the law to enforce their rights; one is the case already alluded to: forming appendix 44 No.1946; in the other No.1980 a Chinese was charged with selling Opium without a License; he was convicted, and fined $50; on the evidence of one of the Farmers, and others. Yet Mr. Matheson in No.1949 gives a different account of the obstacles which led to the failure of the speculation of these Europeans, but again he affirms in No.1950 "that were these obstacles removed the difficulties would remain." Such obstacles alone were not sufficient to account for the failure.
I am not aware that any persons were precluded by Government from bringing provisions to Mr. Matheson. I think such a prohibition in the highest degree improbable.