To the Bditor of the Noniru-Cumva Datty News.
Sm,—Iu reference to the.above subject, in your leader of the 14th inst., you quote a Memorialist as saying that " the prohibition of poppy cultivation is leading to a steady elimination of veal production of opium." On this you remark that it ''om trary to all the evidence we hi received from other sources."
Permit me to suggest whether it is not also contrary to the sense intended by the the author of the Memorial, So different was the impression derived by me from the reading of the o startling asserti Peking Gazette of the 2 ult. to. seo whether I had not been 1 taken in my understanding of the passage.
90 quoted when taken alone is capable of rendering i your leader, but interpreted by its posi-ion it must be taken as hypothetical.
nit discussing the intricacies of Chinese grammar permit me to offer you a translation of the paragraph.' We find," says the Memorialist, that opium has long been an article of consumption, and its uso has become so extended that it is Tike a torrent that cannot be turned back. Prohibit the planting of poppies and the native production may daily diminish, but ortation would the vice has defy all attempts only thing that is to turn it to the account of the Yours truly, Poking, 23rd June.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.