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term expires and the time for reletting the farm, it will realise comes more than he considerably pays for it. But as it is, a sum the farm brings in annually of $340,000, or about one-sixth of the whole of the general revenue. The abolition of the farm would unquestionably occasion an immediate and considerable loss of revenue, and it would almost certainly, for reasons that I shall presently mention, be followed at an early date by the total extinction of the revenue derived from opium. This would necessitate a revision of the scheme of local taxation, and in all probability the imposition of import duties, a measure that would be intensely unpopular in the Colony and would, in the opinion of many, be highly detrimental to the commercial prosperity