CO129-383 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 66

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should be approved. Besides collecting in full the advance deposit of taxes paid in, and requesting the authorities to place the above facts on record and issuing orders to various districts for compliance, it is right that a notice should be issued for general information. This notice is therefore issued, and is to be complied with by the merchants, scholars, and the populace of the whole province; you should know that Chui Hung Yau, &c., merchants of the said guild, have been authorised to take over the management of the licence fees for the whole province on their undertaking to pay the taxes, the object being to devise means for making good the revenue from the gambling (monopoly), and to assist in opium suppression.* The levy (of the fees) shall be put in operation from the first day of the first moon of the third year of Suen Tung, and the undermentioned rules shall be complied with. You are not to disobey or make sport of them, otherwise you will be severely dealt with. All should respectfully comply with this special

notice.

The eight concise rules are set forth as follows:---

1. By the regulations originally framed by the general association for opium suppression, the proportion fixed is 50 per cent. of prepared opium being obtained from every tael of raw opium, and a licence fee of 30 cents is to be paid on every tael of prepared opium after preparation. It is also decided that the fee shall be gradually increased as the consumption of prepared opium decreases. The sources of the foreign and native opium are already diminishing day by day in the present period of opium suppression, with the natural consequence that the consumption of prepared opium daily decreases. The fixed rule as to the gradual increase of the fee payable should therefore be complied with. The sum of 50 cents shall be paid on every tael of prepared opium instead (of 30 cents) from the day of commencement of the present management. Further increase shall be made in future if decrease in consumption takes place, so as to be in conformity with the object of assisting in the suppression of opium."

2. All prepared opium shops and smokers shall apply for the issue of a certificate for purchasing raw opium and also prepared a joined note, stating that the raw opium shall be converted into prepared opium within the period of one month before they shall be allowed to purchase raw opium and to commence preparation. The licence fee shall he paid accordingly when the opium is prepared. The vendor of raw opium shall examine the certificate and the joined note to see if they correspond before he is allowed to sell the opium.

3. The various raw opium shops when importing opium shall report the quantities entering the godown to the principal or branch offices of these merchants' company after the tariff and li-kin duties have been paid. When opium is sold, the quantities leaving the godown shall also be reported. If the opium is to be sent to some other place, the place of consumption shall also be reported in order to facilitate verification.

4. The licences for carrying on business for the prepared opium shops shall all be applied for through these merchants (ie., the Fuk Yuet Company). These prepared opium dealers shall be communicated with, so that they will come to the principal branch offices of the company to deliver up their old licences for cancellation in exchange for new ones. All the licence fees shall be collected and paid through these merchants (ie., the Fuk Yuet Company).

5. All dealers who send raw opium into the interior for sale must have a licence for carrying on business before purchase or sale can be allowed. Should there be no licence for carrying on business and (the goods) be seized, if the packages have not been opened, the merchants (ie., the Fuk Yuet Company) shall find out to whom the goods belong and restore them in their original packages to their owner, so that the foreigners may have no pretexts. As going into the interior for purchase or sale (of opium) without a licence for carrying on business constitutes an international breach of the rules, punish- ment should be meted out in accordance with the rules.

6. Not possessing the certificate for purchasing raw opium and the joined note for preparing opium, and not reporting in accordance with the rules the quantity and weight of goods entering or leaving the godown and also the place of consumption, shall all be considered as violation of the rules and punishment shall be meted out.

Besides being dealt with in accordance with the rules, the licence for carrying on business shall be cancelled in the case of repeated offences.

7. When smugglers smuggle illicit prepared opium into the interior or when

* NOTE.-The words printed in italics in this passage were done by the chairman of our Hong Kong branch.-H. C. W.

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persons having no licences for carrying on business purchase or sell (opium) in contravention of the rules, a fine of twenty times the proper licence fee shall be imposed as soon as (the opium) is discovered. The houses or vessels where illicit prepared opium is stored, or where prepared opium is privately sold, shall be attached as a warning to others.

8. Sixty per cent. of the proceeds from the realisation of illicit prepared opium seized and of the fines shall be set as a reward for the informers and as a bonus to the excisemen making the seizure, in order to encourage them to further efforts. The balance shall be transferred to the public fund, 76 per cent. of which shall be paid to the officials and 24 per cent. retained by the merchants.

Notice issued on

day, 12th moon, second year of Suen Tung.

May