107
1891, the maximum number of chests which could be drawn
annually was 3,650, and since that year it has been 1,800.
In point of fact, however, nothing like that amount has
been actually drawn and the figures since 1890 are as
stated in the Memorandum.
19.
Up to the 31st. August the Opium
Farmer had drawn this year 655 chests, giving a rate of
80.8 chests monthly or 969.6 chests per annum. The low
figure of 725 chests in 1904 was due to the financial
difficulties in which the Farm then was: while the except-
-ional figure 497 chests in 1906 is explained by the fact that the Farm was in such poor circumstances that for some
two months boiling was entirely suspended and recourse was
had to the expedient of largely adulterating Prepared Opium
with Dross Opium. The year 1906 was in fact so exceptional
that it would be misleading to include it in calculating
an average; and, omitting it, the average number of chests
which has
drawn annually since 1901, when Singapore Merchants first
obtained the lease of the Hongkong Opium Farm,
been in their hands ever since, is 877.3 chests or (in- -cluding 969.6 chests for the current year) 890.5 chests
per annum. But in all the years between 1904 and 1907 the
Farmers were working at a disadvantage owing to their
mistake