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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
THE TENDERS FOR THE OPIUM | of the Farm) who
FARM.
(Daily Press, October 2nd.) The tenders submitted for the Hongkong Opium Farm, though not approximating 80 closely the present contract price as we were unfortunately misled into stating yesterday, are still sufficiently high to be regarded as an agreeable surprise to the Government and the taxpayers generally. When addressing the Legislative Council last March on the order received from the SECRETARY OF STATE for the closing of the divans, H.E. the GOVERNOR said he had de- | scribed in a despatch the negotiations under taken with the Farmer, and he estimated that the total abolition of the opium divans would cost the Colony upwards of five lakhs. That estimate was subsequently enlarged to six, and it would be interesting to learn the causes which have led the Farmer to so substantially reduce that estimate. The contract is to be for three years, and each year there is a reduction of one tenth in the amount of the opium coming from India to China. Consequently the price of opium at the Indian auctions is rising as the supply diminishes, and it follows that the retail price in China must rise too. : The natural tendency of high prices is to restrict consumption, and the capitalists bidding for the farm would be sure to take that import- ant consideration into account when entering into a contract for a period of three years. When we bear in mind also that an Ordinance was passed last year by which the Farmer is prohibited from exporting opium to China, it might be supposed that these factors alone would be sufficient to ac. count for a loss of $25,000 a month, which represents a consumption reduced by three hundred chests a year. The opium taken out of bond by the Farmer last year was 934 chests, including 113 chests of Chinese opium. Not sonce 903, however, had the Farmer withdis so much, the figures be- ing 725 chests in 1904; 858 in 1905; 497 in 1906 aud 725 in 1907. The low figures in 1904 and 1906 were due to financial embarrassments of the Farmer in those years, caused by the fact that he had tendered for a larger payment than the Monopoly could afford.” The payment which stood at $2,041,940 in 1905 and 1906 fell in the next contract (March 1907) to $1,452,000. For the new contract the highest tender is $1,185,000-a drop of $267,000.
are
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[October 11, 1909.
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prepared to comparative ana tomist, given some conceiv pay for the Farm a rental which does not able change of some important part of an fall more than three lakhs a year below actual skeleton-say, one or more of the the present payment, while, as we have cervical, vertibrae-to design a "practicable” pointed out above, they have to reckon species to correspond. Doubtless the prob- not only on the total abolition of divans, but lem betimes presented itself to CUVIER, on a reduced export trade and a prospect of but, being continuously employed on a steadily reduced consumption resulting what to one of his temperament seemed from the continually increasing price of more immediately practical work was dis- the drug. Under the new contract the missed immediately. Of course, an even Farmer is allowed to draw from bond 900 small change in the cervical vertebrae would chests a year, instead of 1,800 as formerly, indicate that the presumed animal must have but as 900 chests are well above his average a different method of seizing his food, and' drawings in the past five years, he is not this would imply that the food itself was in likely to be hampered by any actual scarcity some respects different; for instance, in a of the drug. It will remain to be seen herbivore the new animal might be adapted | whether the closing of the divans will to browsing off trees rather than cropping seriously affect local sales in the long run. grass, and this would require his being If they do not, the conclusion will be inevit-plared in a different habitat. This fact able that the closing of the divans will have again would needs modify the form and the meant, what H. E. the GOVERNOR himself proportions of the limbs to make them predicts in his memorandum, that suitable for their changed life. Again, by a "the evil hitherto excluded from domestic curious process of correlation never yet life will be introduced into the home, where explained, and accepted by DARWIN as a women and children will probably become natural law, experience teaches us that in- participators." We sincerely hope that tentional modification of one limb or organ this will not to any large extent be the con- is always accompanied by some undesigned sequence of the hasty and ill-considered alteration of the rest of the skeleton; and policy which the Imperial Government has all these, and their various consequential forced upon the Colony, but in our opinion modifications to suit the changed habitat, the high tenders for the new farm go a would have to be worked out in detail by the long way to confirm this fear.
suppositious species-maker to make of his designed animal a success, capable of standing the wear and tear of actual existence amidst the strife and competition of his surroundings, often directly hostile, and always closely pressing on the means of sustenance.
THE MARCH OF SCIENCE.
(Daily Press, October 4th.) Some sixty years ago it was claimed for the great naturalist CUVIER that if he were given a bore from some unknown animal he Such had been amongst the problems that, would be able from it alone t reconstruct presented themselves, at least to a few en- the entire animal as it lived. That given an.
quirers, when fifty years ago DARWIN's new important bone of some fossil or cther theory of Natural Selection came upon them as a revelation. As the old Greek philo- unknown animal, the skilled naturalist would be able to trace out its general sopher, by noting the overflow from his characteristics, and place it in its natural bath, was led into a train of thought which kingdom and order had been known finally resulted in his discovery of the for fully a century, and it does not seem principle of Specific Gravity; and thereby that CUVIER ever claimed more. CUVIER'S solving the problem of the purity or the researches into the fossil mammalia and contrary of the King'scrown, so the enquirer reptiles, comparatively few up to his as to the possibility of designing the practi- time baving been discovered-had had the cable animal was able on receiving DARWIN'S effect of showing how intimately associated explanation to cry with the philosopher was the life of long past geological time Eureka! What was beyond the powers with that- of the present; and so confirmed of the most inventive of men to satisfactorily the slow-growing conviction amongst men accomplish had, he now learned, been ac- of science that creation was not a sudden tually worked out by nature during the ages. leap, but proceeded by slow and definite The process was one of continuous experi- increments. During his lifetime he may be ment, as the rude “dandy" of the Regency, said to have established on firm foundations consisting as it did of nothing more than a When we take into account the factors the science of Comparative Anatomy, which pair of wheels in line with a saddle fixed we have already mentioned as tending to a was a necessary prelude to DARWIN'S great between, and propelled by the toes of the reduction in the Farmer's business, and add generalisation of the doctrine of descent rider just reaching the ground, after many to these a possible further loss due to the with modification, which, in turn, has com. trials and almost as many failures, by activities of anti-opium organisations, a loss pletely transformed the ways of thought of degrees changed into that scientific toy- of $25,000 a month does not seem to err on the world. Though an indefatigable worker, the bicycle, where the feet no longer touch the side of exaggeration; rather does it leave and the founder of the modern school of the ground, and advantage is taken of the room for the suggestion that the bidders classification, CUVIER was little of a theorist, principle of another still more scientific toy, for the farm cannot be counting on any aud did not care to come before the public like the Gyroscope, to produce a perfect balance. considerable reduction directly resulting LAMARCK as the originator of any general And as the making of the bicycle led to such from the total abolition of opium divans. philosophic scheme of evolution. More than improvements in the art of construction, by Whenthe SECRETARY OF STATE telegraphed the moderns, he was a believer in the pos-reducing weights to a minimum, the motor his order to the Colonial Government to take sibility of reconstructing by " correlation of car in turn became practicable; and finally measures to close the whole of the divans in growth" the lost parts of animals hitherto improvements in the motor engine rendered the Colony, we ventured to express the unknown, be they fossil or recent, so that a flying machine conceivable, and men began opinion that this would have the effect, not though his general conclusions were wonder- to experiment on taking possession of the of materially diminishing the consumption fully accurate, his details were often sadly air. The first indeed to actually fly before of opium in the Colony, but of driving the at fault when put to the test of more modern the motor engine was capable of coming to vice into the homesofthe people. When, how discoveries. None the less, the theory was his aid-poor LILIENTHAL perished miser- ever, H.E. the GOVERNOR, after discussing the fruitful in preparing men's minds for the ably just as he seemed to have achieved his matter with the Opium Farmer informed the reception of the fuller light thrown on the triumph; but his failure so far from checking SECRETARY OF STATE that the total abolition processes of evolution by the discoveries of experiment, by showing what was necessary of opium divans was estimated 10 cost the DARWIN. If, as the teachers of the day to avoid, actu illy promoted progress. Suc- Colony upwards of five lakhs, we regarded were justified in attributing to CUVIER, his cessors like FARMAN and LATHAM by the aid that as the final word on the subject belief in the doctrine of reconstruction of an of lighter and more powerful motors found until the new tenders were received. entire missing skeleton from a few frag themselves able to accomplish what LILIEN- Now it appears there are three Chinese ments preserved were a possibility, it THAL perished in attempting, and so the syndicates (including the present holders | logically should be possible to a thorough process of experiment and failure has gone
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