Three years ago when investigating certain claims made by the opium farmer, and from what I have learnt since, I should say that about 1½ chests of opium are prepared and sold per day for local consumption. Each chest gives 1050 taels of prepared opium; 1½ chests therefore = 1575 taels sold per day. Each tael contains 10 mace, and 1 mace will, in the case of a hard smoker, give 7 pipes, but an ordinary smoker, such as a coolie or one of that class, will make 15 pipes out of 1 mace. At 7 pipes per mace, that would be 110,250 pipes per day, or double that if the smaller dose be adopted.
To this must be added the dross of opium, which, being much cheaper, is largely consumed by the poorer classes. Then there is the opium from China, which is smuggled in from China and Macao – an unknown quantity, but which I have no doubt is considerable.
It is very difficult to fix the quantity smoked on an average; a large number take only a small quantity, but others take more. From these figures and facts, there is no doubt that a large proportion of the adult males of the Colony are consumers of opium; a few women, I believe, smoke a little, and children...