350
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
Is there such a thing as moderation in the consumption of opium? Do you know any or many cases of consumers who have taken their opium for years without harm to themselves? If so, please give a description of one or two such cases in detail?
Do a majority of the labourers, or of the merchants, or of the artisans, belonging to any Asiatic race with which you are conversant, consume opium?
If so, what is generally the effect of the opium habit on their efficiency in their calling?
If possible, give details and examples in reply to this question?
How does the use or abuse of opium among any Asiatic races with which you are conversant compare with the use or abuse of alcohol among such races, in regard to the effect on consumers?
Is the habit of consuming opium condemned as degrading, or injurious, by the general opinion of the Chinese, Malay, or other Asiatic race? How would such races regard the opium habit as compared with the alcohol habit?
Can and do opium consumers break themselves off the opium habit?
If the supply of Indian opium were to be cut off, what would be the effect on opium consumers, and on the Asiatic population of your neighbourhood? Would they supply themselves with opium from elsewhere? Or would they take to alcohol or to some narcotic other than opium? Or would they abstain altogether?
What proportion of your Colony's revenue accrues from opium? If the opium revenue were extinguished, could your Colony raise the needful revenue otherwise?
What would the people say to the loss of the opium revenue?