I don't know what revenue the Colony derives from opium but I would suggest that the same revenue could be made up if public gambling is allowed.
I don't know.
Great majority do desire to get free of the habit.
Don't Know.
I would like to point out that opium consumers in this Colony do not get genuine stuff from the open far.
(12) What proportion of your Colony's revenue accrues from opium? If the opium revenue were extinguished, could your Colony raise the needful revenue otherwise?
(13) Do people of European race contract the opium habit in any numbers? If not, why not? And what makes Asiatics more liable to contract the habit?
(14) How are opium consumers led to use the drug? Do they usually or often take it in the first instance to allay physical pain? Is opium, within your knowledge, a prophylactic against fever, or rheumatism, or malaria? Or is it so regarded commonly by any Asiatic race with which you are conversant?
People usually start associating with friends who come to it in the best instance to allay physical pain but seldom. Yes, opium is used "prophylactically against fever and commonly regarded.
(15) Do opium consumers themselves usually desire to get free of the opium habit?
(16) Is there among any Asiatic race in your Colony a feeling of hostility against England for allowing opium to be exported from India? If so, how does that feeling display itself?
(17) Have you any other remark to make in regard to opium consumption among the people around you?
N.B.—It is desired that gentlemen who kindly undertake to deal with these questions should answer as many as they can.
By Order of
THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON OPIUM.
Abdool Razack
October, 1893.