20.
cordon round Wangtong and Macau, and which, if not made a means of squeezing by terrorism but conducted honestly and fairly—which it is not, would be unobjectionable.
19. Unquestionably the collection of duty on the greater part of those 10,000 Chests was all along successfully effected, if we are to believe the Vice-any to whose ports it was principally destined. The inconvenient round about Chinese Revenue rules, which used to insist on vessels bound in a totally different direction paying duties at not convenient Station, as at Canton, was the cause of much evasion of the law. Nevertheless, it seems improbable that half the total quantity exported in native bottoms, that is 3,000 Chests, could have evaded payment of duty at the port where it was intended to evade duty at same port in Chinese territory.
20. To many native vessels, the establishment of Custom Stations close to this Port, if fair treatment were always obtained, would be a very great convenience, but whether the treatment be fair or unfair, it is pretty certain that at present all or almost all the Opium exported from Hongkong now at least pay the legitimate duty. If therefore the