PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
mmimmim TTC.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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amount is obtained, to draw not more than 300 chests in any two consecutive months of which not more than 175 chests are to be drawn in any one month.
(3.) Not to part with any opium in the raw state either by sale or otherwise, but only prepared opium fit for smoking.
(4.) Not to grant to any person any license to boil or prepare opium.
(5.) To have such establishments only for boiling as may be approved by the
Governor.
(6.) Not to have loose opium (as defined by The Raw Opium Amendment Ordinance, 1891) elsewhere than in his boiling establishments.
HONG KONG OPIUM FARM.
Form of Grant.
To all to whom these presents shall come, I, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of Hong Kong and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same, in Executive Council, send greeting: Whereas by The Prepared Opium Ordinance, 1891, it is enacted amongst other things that the Governor in Council may grant to any person for such considerations and upon such conditions and for such periods and in such form as from time to time may be determined by the Governor in Council the sole privilege of preparing opium and of selling within the Colony opium so prepared and either inclusive or exclusive of the privileges mentioned in sections 16 and 17 of the said Ordinance, (namely, the privilege of collecting dross and of preparing and dealing in dross opium and of granting licenses to persons to collect dross and to prepare or deal in dross opium, such licensees to carry such badge as the Governor may direct and also the privilege of keeping divans for the smoking of opium and of issuing licenses to the separate keepers of such divans, subject to such regulations as the Governor in Council may make as to the division of smoking divans into classes) and that such privilege may from time to time be offered for sale either by sealed tender or at public auction and that the time for sending in such tenders or of the holding auch auction saall be previously notified in the Gazette in English and Chinese and by advertisement in one or more daily papers. of the said Ordinance it is further enacted that the opium farmer (being the grantee And whereas by section 15 (88. 1) named in these presents) may in his discretion grant licenses to suitable persons authorising them to sell prepared opium but subject to such conditions as shall from time to time be approved by the Governor in Council. published in the "Gazette" of the
And whereas notice was Chinese and in the "Hong Kong Daily Press" of the same date that the said privilege
day of
1891 in English and therein described and known as the Opium Farm established under The Prepared Opium Ordinance, 1891, would be disposed of by public tender on the day of
for the term of three years from the 1st day of March, 1892: And whereas the conditions and period of the said privilege and the form of grant thereof were determined by the Governor in Council in pursuance of the said Ordinance: And whereas
(whose name in ) of was declared to be the accepted tenderer per annum payable
Chinese characters is
for the purchase of the said privilege at the sum of $ in equal monthly instalments in advance.
And whereas the said
in pursuance
of the provisions in that behalf contained in the said Ordinance has deposited in the
the sum of $
in the name of the Treasurer (or lodged in the Treasury title deeds of equivalent value) as security for the due observance and fulfilment of the conditions on which the said privilege is granted and of the stipulation or agreement in respect thereof: Know ye therefore that in consideration of the premises and of the payment by the said payable in 12 monthly instalments of $
of the yearly sum of $ month, in advance during the term hereby granted, and in pursuance of the said each on the first day of each Ordinance and such conditions as are determined or may be determined as provided by the said Ordinance, I, the said
by and with the advice
•
of the said Executive Council have given and granted and by these presents under the seal of the said Colony for myself and my successors in the Government of the same do give and grant unto the said
his
executors, administrators and assigns the sole privilege of preparing opium (and of collecting dross and preparing dross opium) and of selling or dealing in opium so prepared within the said Colony, and also the privilege of keeping divans, for and during the term
48
hereinafter expressed, in conformity with and subject to the said Ordinance in that behalf provided, and to the said conditions and stipulations and to these presents, and so
as that the said
his
executors, administrators and assigns shall and lawfully may have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity and advantage, from time to time, during the said term coming, growing, accruing and arising by reason of the said privileges to have hold use exercise and enjoy the premises hereby granted, and all other powers incident to the said privileges, and all benefit and advantage of the said Ordinance and conditions, or any of them unto the said
for and during and unto the full end and term of three whole years commencing with the first day of March 1892: Provided always and these presents are upon this express condition, that if at any time during the said term hereby granted the said his executors, administrators, or
assigns shall not upon his or their part or behalf pay the said monthly instalments or any of them, or observe, perform, and keep any of the provisions of these presents, or of the said Ordinance, or the said conditions and stipulations or any of them, or if these presents are now, or at any time during the said term shall become or be contrary to law, then and in any or either of the said cases, these presents shall forthwith cease, determine and be utterly void, anything hereinbefore contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding. In witness whereof, I, the said
have set my hand and the Seal of the said Colony to these presents on the day of
189
3931.
(No. 26.)
MY LORD,
No. 23.
SIR WILLIAM ROBINSON to LORD KNUTSFORD. (Received February 26, 1892.)
[Answered by No. 25.]
Government House, Hong Kong, January 22, 1892.
HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's Despatch of the 31st October, respecting the opium traffic.
Your Lordship asks me to consider and report whether it would not be possible to repeat the experiment of placing this traffic directly under Government, or by some other modification of the existing system to diminish the evil resulting from it without seriously crippling the revenue.
I have given this matter my earnest consideration and have had several consultations in regard to it with his Honour the Chief Justice.
We have come to the conclusion, a conclusion in which the Executive Council concurs, that it would be impossible to diminish the evil of the opium traffic by an abolition of the existing system.
I have asked Sir J. Russell, who is most thoroughly acquainted with the subject in all its phases, to put his views in writing, and I have the honour to enclose an exhaustive memorandum which he has prepared and which I trust will prove to your Lordship that the farming system, properly controlled as it is at present, is more likely to prevent smuggling and to diminish the evils attendant upon an undue consumption of opium than any other that can be devised,
I have, &c.
SIB,
Enclosure in No. 23.
WILLIAM ROBINSON.
Sir James RUSSELL to GOVERNOR OF Hong Kong.
Hong Kong, January 6, 1892. As requested by your Excellency, I have carefully perused Lord Knutsford's Despatch of 31st October last, in which his Lordship desires a consideration of the question of granting a few licenses for the sale of opium, instead of the system of farming at present in force, with the view of diminishing the evils of the traffic without seriously crippling the revenue.
• No. 31. F 2