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Referring to the same subject in his report for the following year (1894), Mr. BRENAN makes the subjoined remarks :—
"INLAND TRANSIT TRADE.
"The inland transit trade remains in the same unsatisfactory state as before. It is exposed to all the taxation which the Provincial Government sees fit to burden it with; and to all the illegal levies which the barrier officials may exact in order to supplement their inadequate pay. The transit pass system, the success of which in 1891-the only year when it was given fair play--proved what a boon it was to trade, is now never availed of for the simple reason that the Chinese trader has been made to understand that it is better for him to leave it alone. It may be thought that if Chinese are afraid to use transit passes, foreigners need not be. But the import trade and the distribution of foreign goods into the interior are entirely in the hands of the natives; and our local British merchants are naturally unwilling to embark in an unprofitable venture merely for the sake of fighting principle. Things have been allowed to drift into such a state that now the first shipment to an interior market would surely result in a serious loss, and subsequent shipments too, most probably. Delays, illegal arrests, false accusations, fines, and confiscation, is what the British merchant must be prepared to face, while the eventual indemnification is too shadowy to justify the risk. But even after these preliminary obstructions have been combated and overcome, and after British goods can find their way unmolested into the interior, the provincial authorities would still have their revenge. The goods sooner or later must cease to be British owned, and the Chinese purchaser, if a purchaser could be found, would be made to pay up all arrears and something more. The effect of the transit pass would be that for payment en route there would be substituted a heavier payment at destination."
PREFERENTIAL DUTIES ON JENK-BORNE GOODS.
"Although the Chinese authorities will not admit it, there is no doubt that the native Custom House continues to allow goods, shipped by junk to or from Hong- kong, to pay lower duties than steamer cargoes. The object is not as might be thought to favour junks, it is simply done in order to divert business from the foreign to the native Custom House. The more the Chinese superintendent collects the more does he gain personally, for in a way he farms the native Customs.
The foreign steamer loses somewhat, but the greatest sufferer is the Imperial Exchequer. To take tea alone, the total export from Canton last year was 78,000 piculs, of which 66,000 piculs went to Hongkong by junk. In the ordinary course of trade the whole should have gone by steamer and paid duty to the foreign Customs, that is to the Imperial Exchequer, at the rate of 24 taels per pical. As it is impossible to find out what rebate the native Customs allowed, the profits of the Chinese superintendent cannot be estimated, but the national revenue lost 165,000 tuels."
Mr. OCTAVIUS JOHNSON, H. B. M.'s Consul at Pakhoi, in his Report on Trade for 1894, makes the following reference to the extinction of the transit trade:
"TRANSIT PASSES.
"No attempt to pass cottons or woollens into the interior under transit pass has been made since the energetic attempt to do so made by Mr. HERTON, when the port was first opened, were successfully frustrated by the Chinese officials, and the only goods now sent up under this treaty privilege are kerosene oil and matches. These, as a rule, pass without trouble to their destination, but the Consul's inter- position was requested in July last when some illegal dues were levied ou some goods belonging to the German firm of Schomburg & Co. Since this the business has proceeded quietly as before. No outward transit passes are now applied for."