558.4.4 #
1
The front is mainly Opium Licences, size, £701.10.3. The whole amount received for such License was £2,568.4.4 notwithstanding that, as already remarked on a former occasion, not a Single Licence was taken out for an Opium sucking shop, and several Licences, held by parties resident at the villages, had been abandoned on the ground that the population and consequently business had decreased in consequence of the piracies committed on the shores of the island. Spirit Licences too show a considerable decrease, viz: £353.18.9; and here I must still report my adherence to the opinions I expressed in August last, in a Memorandum on the Estimates. The proposed Police Ordinance not having, so far as I know, been yet brought before the Council, I would respectfully urge that some provision should be adopted by which a portion of all fines imposed for the infringement of Revenue Laws should go to the informer, as I am convinced that, without such provision, neither Police nor others will inform.
Page 293
The Ordinance and regulations provide that the Proprietor of every Opium Shop shall have a board in front of his shop; I do not believe that many of them have such a board! As to the illicit sale of samshu, it is notorious like the existence of gambling houses. However, as far as I can judge, the gross receipts from the various Licences during the present year will even exceed those of the last year by £591.2.9, an increase in Licence Tax.