E 4 -
while every year improvements in engines reduce the consumption of motor spirit. Most of the duty is paid by three large companies who own extensive storage facilities, comparatively little is imported by outsiders.
IV.-OPIUM.
11. The total amount of prepared opium sold amounted to only 59,208 taels, by far the lowest figure since the Monopoly was instituted in 1914. The net amount derived from sales was $1,152,851. If from this sum all expenses are deducted the actual profit on the opium which accrued to Revenue was about $680,000. Two causes contributed chiefly to the shrinkage of the figure to a half of that for 1932.
12. At the end of January sales of Hong Kong Opium ceased, and after this all opium of the ordinary grade was obtained from the Singapore Monopoly in accordance with a resolution passed at the Bangkok Opium Conference in 1931. Only two sizes were sold in extruded tubes containing .02, and .2 of a tael respectively. Sales which had already fallen from 7,500 in 1923 to 1,500 taels per week, within two weeks of the introduction of the Singapore type had fallen to 800 taels, and after the close of the special campaign against opium divans at the end of October further decreased to about 500 taels or under. Many complaints were received as to the effect the new opium had on the smokers and the Monopoly Analyst was instructed to investigate the matter on his way through Singapore. He failed to find anything which could account for the extreme unpopularity of this opium, except that it contained a higher proportion of Persian opium than the smokers had been accustomed to. It was expected that smokers would overcome their objections when they grew more accustomed to the strange blend, but this has not proved to be the case.
In fact if anything the unpopularity has increased. The strange thing is that such complaints have ever been heard in Malaya, where there is also a large Cantonese population. It was of course known previously that the Chiuchow and Amoy Chinese had a liking for Persian opium, while Cantonese always preferred Indian opium, but as the Cantonese in Malaya had not displayed any marked distaste for the Government opium as sold there, and moreover Macau which only used Persian opium showed no decrease in the revenue from opium during the past few years after the cessation of open tendering for the Opium Farm, it could never have been anticipated that Hong Kong Cantonese should have manifested such a marked dislike for the new opium.
13. Another cause for the large decrease in sales of Government opium was the extraordinary cheapness of Chinese raw opium. Probably the economic factor was the stronger, since...