Customs has recently caused to be issued a series of reports on the consumption of opium in China, which we may say are chiefly remarkable as showing how great are the difficulties, especially to persons occupying official positions, in arriving at any correct calculations. The statistics to our mind do not support the view taken in regard to them by the. Inspector. General, though it may be a reasonably safe calculation that the number of people in China who use opium to an excess likely to injure their health may be put down as vastly under one per cent. This question of opium s"moking in China is one of considerable importance morally and socially, and is certainly not likely to be brought to a satisfactory conclusion by such wild statements, as on the one side are made by the Inspector-General of Customs and on the other haud by a section of the missionaries who a actively aiding in the antiopium trade agitation in England. If we are to believe one side there are districts in Ohina where every man, woman and child, is a victim to the vice of opium-smoking, while if we listen to the other we are to. suppose that this habit so much spoken about is really confined to 8} individuals in every thousand. More sober caleulations, and perhaps better opportunities of judging, would lead us to moderate very considerably both statements. Wo have heard it stated by many sensible Chinese that the number of their male friends who smoke opium,.as against those who do. not is about seven to three, a calculation sometimes modified to-six to four, and. our own experience goes to prove that the calculation is not very far astray: This is curiously exemplified in the last Mani 1 Report. Of 2,872 Chinese prisoners apprehended last year by tha Police 902 were opium-smokers.. This, however, does not fairly state the proportion. Of the above number 1,188 were dismissed or fined, go that. the number actually coming under. the knowledge of the police was, reduced to 1,684, or about 536 smokers to the thousand. Many more it may. be assumed would smoke occasionally, and on the other hand the proportion is likely to be greater amongst the criminal than the ordinary population. Again, the adult male population of the English and Hongkew Settlements may be put done at about 60,000, The. Municipal Council charges a license feo, on opium-shops of half a dollar a lamp, This fee brings in nearly $2,500 por month, showing that about 5,000 lamps are in use, Each lamp may be assumed, as serving on an average six smokers, so that the namber of opium-smokers frequenting their shops maybe stated at 30,000. On the one haud many. these are visitors only coming into' the: Settlements by day, and. many, of the, residents prefer smoking at home,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.