C
Lov
471/
arrangements prior to tendering.
5.
Your Lordship inferred in the 7th. paragraph of your Despatch of January 8th. last that you desired me to lay before you the conditions under which the tenders for the new Farm would be invited. The steps I propose to take for the better control of the Farm, and the restriction in the quantity of Opium which the Farmer may prepare for local use or export, will no doubt decrease the amount of the tenders irrespective of the closing of Divans, and as Your Lordship has intimated that the Imperial Government will bear a substantial part of the loss of Revenue to the Colony, I shall be obliged if Your Lordship will inform me whether you concur in these proposals. In the urgency of the circumstances I have described I would request that your reply may if possible be communicated to me by telegram.
6.
Apart from the necessity of making good the loss in revenue that will occur owing to the policy of His Majesty's Government in regard to Opium, it will be necessary as far as the financial position at the close of the year can at present be foreseen to raise at least $500,000 per annum of new taxation.
What form this taxation shall take
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