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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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cannot save money, it all goes to opium, you forget all about your parents in China, and forget to send them money. It makes you tremble and your eyes and nose pour, and your limbs ache when you are without it. It takes away the appetite, and the want of it drives people to thieving.
19. One says, probably about 20 per cent. of the people in his part of China who are padi planters smoke opium. Another says in his neighbourhood, in China, the people are padi planters, and about 50 per cent. of them smoke opium; and those that become Christians generally give it up with the aid of the missionaries.
20. Opium smoking has no good points, certainly it helps to cure illness, but then when they are cured, people cannot give up the habit.
21. They state that the use of opium pills facilitates giving up the practice of smoking, but the farm put a stop to it by prosecutions; some however, still use them stealthily.
Dross must be bought from the farm, but is very inferior as prepared there.
22. Complaint is made, not only of the high price of opium, but of malpractices on the part of the farm in selling short-weight, e.g., the farm sell the chandoo in leaves pur- porting to contain three hoons for 7 cents., but the leaves contain actually only about two hoons, sometimes a little more, sometimes less; I verified this, the sample I tried weighing just over two hoons only; this amounts to robbing these wretched people to the tune of 33 per cent.
23. They dare not complain to the farm about this, they say, for fear either of having someone set on to beat and kill them, or of having chandoo surreptitiously placed in their premises and being falsely prosecuted by the farm for being in possession of con- traband chandoo, and they cited instances known to them where this had been done and men had been wrongfully convicted and sent to jail, or had been pecuniarily ruined by the farm, They say they are worse off under the present farm than they have ever been before.
24. I attach copy of the answers* of the Colonial surgeon to some questions I put to him. 25. In 1881 the Chinese population was 19,741, the number of Chinese in jail was 79, and chandoo was cheaper; in 1891 the Chinese population was 18,161, the number of Chinese in jail was 124.
The present price of chandoo is in town $2 a tabil, and 24 cents. per chi for any less quantity than one tahil, in country $1.70 per tahil, and 17 cents. per chi for quantity than one tahil, and planters get it on easier terms.
any less The number of opium shops in 1881 was 60 against 79 at the present time, but the number of smokers cannot be ascertained.
26. The information obtained from these smokers cannot, although in many points undoubtedly useful, be accepted as wholly trustworthy for the purpose of forming an opinion as to the effects of opium smoking amongst the Chinese generally.
27. In the first place many of them are people of no character at all, and many obviously said what they imagined was desired they should say, e.g., in respect of the evils of smoking and their desire to give it up.
28. Secondly, they almost entirely belong to the lowest classes, and the evil resulting from the practice of opium smoking can only be judged of so far as it concerns those classes. 29. In paragraph 18 are to be found the evils alleged to follow on the use of opium, and no doubt they are not overstated in respect of those who fall into excess, and those who fall into excess appear to be the majority amongst these smokers.
30. This excess in the class we are dealing with, appears to be due, chiefly among those who begin smoking in good health, to their beginning on a scale disproportioned to their means, and so they do not get enough food, and their appetite suffers, and we find that 38 out of 91 or over 41 per cent. take first to smoking in the brothels for pleasure, where they are not likely to trouble themselves about a little more or a little less.
31. Then as to those who begin already in the condition of invalids, little is to be expected from them, who are altogether given up to the alleviation of their pains.
32. But even among this class of people we find that 20 out of 64, or 31 per cent. retain their appetite, five of these 20 ̊had smoked under five years, four between five and 10 years, seven between 10 and 15 years, while one had smoked over 20 years, one over 25 years, and two over 30 years.
33. It appears to take some months to become a confirmed smoker, a few of those I met being only occasional smokers, who had a sinoke two or three times a week, and said they could still do without it.
• Not received.
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34. Many of those who had smoked for many years were still in good condition physically, he who had smoked longest (see (j) par. 13) had smoked 53 years and was 72 years old, his appetite had only begun to fail within the last two or three years, the oldest smoker was aged 78, had smoked only 30 years, and was as hearty a man as one could wish to see, and still enjoyed a good appetite.
35. There are no data respecting those who smoke only at home, and therefore hardly any respecting the better-to-do classes, two priests being the only persons of any means at all that I came across; one of them had smoked for 19 years, the other for over 10, both had good appetites and looked like it, and had reduced the amount of their smoking.
36. It seeins to me clear (a) that numbers of those who said they wished to give up the practice cared little about doing so, because only about 20 per cent. of them ever tried; (b) that the difficulty of giving up the practice has been much over-rated; (c.) that therefore the evil of the practice has likewise been over-rated; (d.) that those who smoke in moderation live to a good age and are none the worse for the practice; they are, however, as far as the data I have before me show, decidedly in the minority. As to private smokers, the probabilities would seem to be, that of them who are persons of some means, eating well and regularly, the majority would probably not be the victims of excess to anything like the same extent as the opium shop frequenters,
37. The foregoing considerations do not, however, alter the fact that the majority of the opium smokers in the opium shops are slaves to and the worse for the practice they indulge in, and are at present unable to help themselves in the matter, and it would clearly appear to be the duty of the Government to do what may be in their power to (a) assist in freeing them from the habit; (b) where this proves impracticable, to minimise the injurious effects of the practice; (c) to do what they can to render the practice less wide spread.
38. I believe that under the existing farm system it should be practicable to do something under each of the above heads, viz., under (a) giving those who wish to give up the practice gratis help at the out-door dispensaries, and the same to patients who are smokers at the gaols and hospitals and to have them followed up afterwards. (the police could help,) this would be a simple way of testing the genuineness of the alleged desire to give up the practice; under (b) by taking steps to secure that the smokers do get the actual quantity of opium for which they pay, and so reducing their consumption of dross.
Under (c)-I. To forbid opium smoking at all in brothels as a matter of brothel regulation. This might be characterised as an unjustifiable interference with individual liberty, but I believe it would have the effect of largely reducing the habit of smoking. II. to reduce the number of opium shops.
Under (c)-It would, of course, be impracticable to take action during the period of the present farm contract.
39. As between the licensing system and the farming system, regarded not from a revenue but from a moral point of view, I should certainly be in favour of trying the former, as I cannot but regard the latter as offering an unlimited field daily utilised, for the display of all the worst features of the Chinese character; the farm is always a hot- bed of iniquity and oppression of the grossest kind as already illustrated in paragraphs 22
and 23 above.
The above has long been known to magistrates and police officers.
40. And the system pursued by the Government for a good many years past of. forcing up the tenders, has tended to the creation of an unnaturally high rent, which has to be provided by extensive smuggling from Singapore into other places.
41. Though in favour of a very substantial reduction in the number of licensed opium shops, am not in favour of their complete abolition. It would only have the effect of removing the criminal classes, who will always be smokers, out of the supervision, without any corresponding advantage.
of police range
42. The licensing power is already in the hands of the Government.
43. The experiment might be tried of limiting the quantity of opium to be sold to or possessed by one person if the licensing system were adopted.
44. No doubt the adoption of the licensing system would cause a loss of revenue, but means could probably be found of making up the loss, partly by a return to the old pawnbroking law, which seems to be more popular than the new in some points, and partly by a light poll-tax, or a Chinese "Hasil Klamin."
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