"Engar Refinery Company and that it appears that the spirits manufactured and sold by that Company are of an unduly cheap quality. And that it is not desirable to introduce for that purpose an excise duty upon spirits manufactured for consumption in the Colony, It is resolved that the Licence Fee for the distillery licence for said Company for the present year be fixed at Two Thousand Dollars instead of One Hundred Dollars.
The Acting Colonial Secretary was requested to reply accordingly to Messrs Jardine Matheson and Company's letter of the 19th of August 1880 and to inform them that the Governor in Council had fixed the sum of $2,000 as the amount of Fee to be paid for the Licence for the next twelve months."
The information before the Executive Council entirely justified the words of the Attorney General's resolution that the distillation of spirits was to be carried on in the Engar Refinery Company, Hong Kong, on a more extended scale than hitherto, and that the rum so distilled was sold in this Colony at an unduly cheap rate.