CO129-396 - Public Offices - 1912 — Page 90

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however, certain that the highest price offered, that at which adjudication was made, was 148,750 patacas(66:9375500-

£13,388), whereas during the former period (1903-1909) the

sum paid was 334,000 patacas(150:3008000 - £30,060). In

the meantime, while the 1910 adjudication at açao was for

148,750 patacas with a margin of 2000 chests or 80,000

"bolas", at Hong kong, with a limit of 900 chests or 36,000

"bolas", the revenue of the monopoly amounts to 1,200,000

patacas (540:000000 £108,000). This Directorate General

cannot help recording the impression caused by such a fla- grant contrast and would be glad if it were possible to ex- plain this by reasons other than those arising from the defective administrative action at acao, in connection

with this and other monopolies, in spite of the most per-

sistent recommendations made in order that contracts and

customs regulations should be strictly adhered to and ob- served, and especially for the purpose of preventing Bruce- ling, so that our international engagements should be car- ried out. The Directorate General for the Colonies is na-

turally anxious to defend the interests of the Colony of Nacao by safeguarding its principal revenue, and while bearing this in mind it recognizes the fact that it is only fair and justifiable that the neighbouring Colony of Hong kong should to seek to guarantee and insure its own revenues. Following this same line of argument the Directorate Ge- neral cannot help recognizing the great disproportion which in reality exists between the limit fixed for the prepara- tion of opium for consumption and exportation at Macao and the revenue from the monopoly, and, on those grounds, it accepts in principle the necessity of reducing the limit of the new adjudication to be effected in 1913, by modifying

the

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