No. 4.
"of Opium and Bhang within Municipalities and Local Board Towns."-No. 2 of 1893.
2. I enclose a statement* by the Attorney-General to the effect that the Royal Assent may properly be given to this Ordinance.
3. The object and provisions of the Ordinance are explained in the accompanying Report by the Attorney-General. In assenting to this Ordinance I have not overlooked the fact that, by your Lordship's direction, an inquiry is being made as to the effects in Ceylon of the consumption of opium and bhang. This enactment contains nothing that need affect any decision that may ultimately be based on the inquiry into the general question respecting opium and bhang.
I have, &c.
A. E., HAVELOCK.
three.
5
Passed in Council the first day of November, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-
H. L. CRAWFORD,
Clerk to the Council.
Assented to by his Excellency the Governor the seventh day of November, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three.
E. NOEL WAlker,
Colonial Secretary.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TILTIC.O. 882
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
Preamble.
To be rent un · one with Ordinances
No. 4 of 187A
and 9 of 18ND.
Governor may
bring any municipality local board under the operation of
this Ordinance.
Section 7 of
the Ordinance
No. 4 of 187H
shall not apply
to any town
brought under
the operation
of this Ordinance. Number of
Incenses and
conditions to be attached thereto to be annually published.
Kections & 3, H. and 7 of the ()r is-
*
Enclosure in No. 3.
ORDINANCE enacted by the GovERNOR OF CEYLON, with the advice and consent of the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL thereof.
No. 2 of 1893.
An Ordinance relating to the sale by retail of Opium and Bhang within Municipalities and Local Board Towns.
A. E. HAVELOCK.
WHEREAS it is expedient to amend "The Opium and Bhang Ordinance, 1878," and to extend certain of the provisions of the Ordinance No. 9 of 1889, intituled, "An Ordinance relating to the sale by retail of Opium and Bhang within the Colombo Municipality," to other municipalities, and also to any town in which a local board has been established: Be it therefore enacted by the Governor of Ceylon, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:-
1. This Ordinance, and the Ordinances No. 4 of 1878 and No. 9 of 1889, shall be taken and read as one Ordinance.
2. From and after the date at which this Ordinance shall come into operation it shall be lawful for the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, by Proclamation to be for that purpose published in the "Government Gazette," to bring any town in which a municipality or local board has been or may be established, other than Colombo, under the operation of this Ordinance, and such Proclamation to amend, alter, or revoke as and whenever the Governor shall, with the like advice, determine.
3. The provisions of section 7 of the Ordinance No. 4 of 1878, relating to the granting of licenses to sell by retail opium and bhang, and the fees to be paid for such licenses, shall not apply to any town brought under the operation of this Ordinance, and licenses to sell by retail opium and bhang within the limits of any such town shall be granted only as herein provided.
4. The chairman of the municipal council or of the local board shail, on or before the 30th day of November in each year, cause to be published twice at least in the " Govern- ment Gazette," and in one or more of the local newspapers, a notice declaring the number of licenses for the sale by retail of opium and bhang within the limits of any such town which shall be granted for the year commencing the first day of January then next. The number of such licenses so to be granted shall be in the discretion of the said council or board, but shall in no case exceed five within the limits of any municipal council, and three within the limits of any local board for any one year.
5. The provisions of sections 4, 5, 6, and 7 of Ordinance No. 9 of 1889, shall extend 1987 extended to any town brought under the operation of this Ordinance.
Ace No. of
town brought
under the opera
Tion of thu Ordinance. Re-sale at risk
6. In the event of any such re-sale as by section 6 of the Ordinance No. 9 of 1889 mentioned, realising a smaller amount than that at which the highest bidder at the
of purchaser. previous sale had been declared the purchaser, such highest bidder shall be liable for the difference, which shall be recoverable by action, notwithstanding the amount may exceed the sum of one hundred rupees, in a court of requests having in other respects jurisdiction in that behalf.
• Not printed.
SIR A. E. HAVELOCK to the MARQUESS OF RIPON. (Received December 27, 1893.)
MY LORD MARQUESS,
Queen's House, Colombo, Ceylon, December 5, 1893.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's Despatch, of the 16th November last,* calling my attention to your Despatches of the 27th July last, and of the 8th August last,† on the subject of the sale and consumption of opium and bhang.
2. Inquiries were at once set on foot by the Lieutenant-Governor, in my absence on leave from the Colony, with the object of dealing exhaustively with the questions raised in your Lordship's Despatches. Information has been obtained as to the quantities of opium and bhang which have passed through the Customs, in the case of opium, for each year between 1840 and 1892, and in the case of bhang, for the three years 1890, 1891, and 1892. It has been impossible to obtain information with respect to the importation of bhang for any year previous to 1890, as before that year bhang was classified under the general bead of "drugs, &c.," and the Customs entries not being kept for longer than two years, it is now too late to trace the exact quantity of thut particular drug which passed through the Customs. I enclose a copy of the returns with respect to the importation of opium and bhang. In reporting upon the Collector of Customs states that he has no reason to believe that either opium or bhang is smuggled into the country in any appreciable quantity,
66
these returns
3. These returns, together with your Lordship's Despatches, of the 27th July and of the 8th August, were sent to the Principal Civil Medical Officer and the Inspector General of Police, with a request that they would “collect information beyond what may have come before them in their respective official spheres of duty as to the extent to which opium and bhang are used in Ceylon, and whether the use "of these drugs has increased in the last 10 years." I encluse a copy of a joint report made, in pursuance of this request, by the Principal Medical Officer and the Inspector- General of Police. It will be seen that these officers show, by an analysis of the Customs returns, that when due allowance is made for the increase of population which took place between the census of 1881 and that of 1891, there was during the year 1891 a very considerably less quantity of opium consumed by each head of the population than 10 years before, in the year 1881. The actual amount of opium imported in 1881 indicates a consumption of 1 lb. among 208 of the population, and the amount imported! in 1891 indicates a consumption of 1 lb. among 302 of the population. The facts stated with regard to the consumption of bhang are very meagre.
4. The information which has been obtained, and which I now submit, is valuable and interesting; and, assuming that the free use of opium is an evil, it is satisfactory in so far at least as it tends to show that the consumption of opium is decreasing. But it seemed to me that this information was not sufficient to enable my advisers in the Executive Council to give me an opinion on the points which your Lordship had asked me to report upon. I have therefore desired the Principal Civil Medical Officer and the Inspector-General of Police to supplement the information they have already given by a statement showing the experience of the medical and police departments of the existence and extent of the alleged abuse of opium and liang among the people of
* Not printed.
↑ Nos. 1 and 2.
A 3
·
Ceylon, and of the effects of those drugs on the health and conduct of the persons who consume them. I enclose a copy of my letter to those two officers. I have not, up to the present date, received a reply.
5. Your Lordship will conclude from the tenour of the above remarks that I am not yet ready to give an opinion on the questions which you have put to me. I will, however, hasten to do so as soon as I have before me the necessary basis of information.
I have, &c.
A. E. HAVELOCK.
Enclosure 1 in No. 4.
STATEMENT of OPIUM imported into the IBLAND from 1840 to 1855.
Yours.
Imports.
Home Consumption. Estimated Value in Sterling.
lbs.
Iba.
£
1840
1,562
1,682
1841
1,046
1,046
d. 1,407 1 4+ 987 8 4+
1842
1,794
1,794
2,414 5 0
1843
1844
Files missing.
1845
1,043
1,048
1846
711
711
1847
1,450
1,456
1,564 10 0 981 10 0 2,184 0 A
1848
917
917
1849
1,279
1,279
1,891 5 0
1,918 10 0
1850
851
8.51
1,281 15 0
1851
2,189
2,180
8,284 12 6
1832
2,540
2,540
3,810 18 9
1853
4,668
4,668
5,372 15 6
1854
4,290
4,290
1865
4,263 8 10
3,662
4,662
28,008
28,008
5,288 10 0
36,100 6 4