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N°
No 350
Sir,
C.O
412
37570
RECS
R 30 0 13
GOVERNMENT HOUSE.
HONGKONG, 4th. October, 1913.
3
Referring to previous correspondence regarding
the establishment of a Goverment Opium Monopoly in this Colony, I
have the honour to address you on the subject of the constitution of
a reward fund in connection therewith.
2.
The Reward Fund in the Straits Settlements is
constituted by section 32 (2) of the Chandu Revenue Ordinance and
is worked, I understand, in the following manner. When a seizure of
opium is made the Fund is credited with the amount which it would have cost the monopoly to purchase the raw commodity and to prepare
it for sale; the opium is then taken on charge at that figure with
the other stock in the books, and the profit on sale to the public
carried to monopoly revenue. The Superintendent may draw on the
General Revenue for account of Singapore and Malacca 85,000 and
83,000 for account of Penang, these amounts being the totals which
can be drawn in any one year. Any credit balance at the end of a
year is carried forward to the next year's account.
3.
I propose that a fund should be established in this Colony and managed in a similar way with this exception that
any credit balance over and above 85,000 should at the end of a year be carried to monopoly revenue. That course would appear to be preferable to crediting such balance to "Forfeitures" inasmuch as the amount of Revenue in any one year for which the Department was
responsible
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LEWIS HARCOURT, M.P.,
&C.
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&C...