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Remarks and suggestions on the foregoing Draft Rules and Regulations submitted to the Government in our Memorial of 19th October 1892.
Before dealing directly with the draft Rules and Regulations and pointing out in what respect they seem to us to need alterations and improvements we ask leave to explain and set out for the information of H.E. the Governor and of his council the precise nature of the business about to be inaugurated in the Colony of dealing with Petroleum in Bulk and the methods in which that business is likely to be carried on and developed.
Hitherto Kerosine has been brought to this Colony and has been exported from it, whether in Steamers or in Junks, in Tins or Cases each tin containing 5 American Gall. (4 Imp. Gall) and each case two tins.
The existing Rules and Regulations provide amply for the necessities of the trade carried on in this form, but are wholly inapplicable to an import and export trade of Oil in Bulk and hence the necessity for the new Rules and Regulations now under consideration; but these new Rules and Regulations seem to be framed upon the supposition that the trade in Petroleum in Bulk will be wholly an Import trade and the sale for local consumption will still remain as before a trade in tins and cases.
But this is not so. The objects of our Syndicate are not merely the carriage into the Colony and storage here of Petroleum in Bulk, but the transport of it in Bulk from the Colony to other ports and places in the neighborhood and the establishment of small depots in these places for its storage and distribution.
The Syndicate does not intend to make use of tins and cases only for the retail purpose of the trade. To manufacture these locally or import them would neutralize all the economies expected from the transport of the Oil in Bulk. Drums and jars and other vessels more cheaply made locally and more suitable for carriage in China will