Appendix E.
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF IMPORTS AND EXPORTS FOR THE YEAR 1938.
I. LIQUOR.
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1. There was an increase of $565,482.40 in the net revenue collected as compared with 1937. About 40% of this increase is accounted for by increased receipts from native type liquors. Of this $162,416.82 was paid by local distilleries and $58,556.61 by importers of Chinese and Japanese type spirits. Northern spirit was imported this year than for many years, which explained by the influx of refugees from the northern provinces, who probably prefer their own particular type of liquors.)
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About 60% of the increase in duty was in respect of European type liquors. Whisky and beer, are, still, the most popular beverages, and account for more than half of the total revenue from this source. An interesting feature was the duty paid by the local brewery, which amounted to $146,636.35, nearly twice the amount paid last year.
2. (There was a decrease in the smuggling of imported Chinese spirits, which no doubt is accounted for by transportation difficulties, especially since the invasion of South China. In many cases, ships running to coastal ports of China, whose crews are often expert smugglers, have had to abandon their services completely, and roads and rivers formerly favoured by smugglers are now in alien hands and present an insurmountable obstacle,
A3. What was gained in this respect, however, was offset by the continued activities of illicit distillers. As an instance of the extent of this trade, it may be mentioned that 170 gallons of illicit distilled liquor were found on one occasion at Ping Chau, when six stills and 2,000 gallons of fermenting materials were seized. On a raid made two days later, in the same village, two stills were again found to be in operation; and 22 gallons of spirit and 500 gallons of fermenting materials were seized.
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Tai Pak and Yee Pak still continue to be sore places and hotbeds of illicit distillation, and many stills and much mash have been seized here. When these two villages, whose inhabitants constitute a mere handful of people, are raided, it is significant, that all the men are absent, and, although this may be a mere coincidence, it has happened so often that the natural inference is that all the male inhabitants are employed only in this illicit activity. Perhaps, however, the most persistent and blatant illicit distilling is carried on at Cha Kwo Lin, where the terrain favours the law breaker, and it is impossible to approach without being noticed by the line of watchmen on the hills. This particular village and its environs have been raided scores of times, and nearly always successfully, but the number of arrests has been very few.
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Much ingenuity was displayed by the illicit distillers in their latest efforts to avoid the attention of the revenue officers, for not only have they resorted to the old expedients of burying mash inside Chinese graves, and in inaccessible places on the hillsides, but, it has also been discovered in receptacles hidden in the paddy fields underneath growing vegetables, and occasionally under the very paths on which the revenue officers walk to get from village to village. By systematic raiding and special patrols many of the haunts of illicit distillers have been broken up, but unfortunately Hong Kong is full of lonely valleys and beautiful fresh water streams which lend themselves to the persistency of the illicit distiller who readily moves on from one valley to another, thus providing himself with a certain amount of immunity, for a short time at least, from this department.