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the rewards paid to informers at the rate of $1 a tael were amply repaid by the increased quantities of Government prepared opium available for sale. Now, however, the bulk of the confiscated opium has to be destroyed and the large sums paid in rewards, amounting at present to about £12,000 a month, bring no corresponding return by way of revenue from opium sales; nor, for the reasons given in the preceding paragraph, ac they seem to be justified as protecting the sale of the Government high grade opium. It is true that a certain amount of revenue is received from fines in connection with opium offences, but of the total of $444,000 imposed in fines by the Courts in 1920 only £24,000 was actually paid, most of the oftenders sentenced to heavy fines electing to go to prison and thereby becoming a further charge to the Colony.
D. In these circumstances it appears to me to be highly desirable to reduce, as far as possible, this unproductive expenditure. It is impossible to dispense with the system of rewards altogether as the result would almost certainly be that the Colony would be flooded with cheap low-grade opium, and the use of the drug would be extended, the work of years being thus undone. I have now decided to try the effect of reducing by one half the rate at which rewards are paid for information in regard to inferior opium, and at the same time of banishing. wherever possible, those convicted of opium offences; and
I trust that this policy may prove a more effective and less costly method of dealing with the problem.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient humble servant,
B.E. Stubbs
Governor,
20.