Wuen we get a Report from the British Consul at Canton, Mr. Alabaster, we are sure beforehand that its value will be much above the average of such documents, for no British official in China has a wider knowledge of the country and its trade, or is more apt to spice his observations with humour not ways unmixed with cynicism. Mr. Alabaster has, of course, a good deal to say on what he regards as the establishment of a Chinese Custom-house at Hongkong, "and the recognition of its right to levy duties on all goods imred to or exported from the colony yy junk and he is confirmed by what we find the Inspector-General, in the Report on " Opium, Crude and Prepared," Just issued, writing to his Commissioners at Kowloon and Lappa; that they are "to write as if called on to report on the state of business at Hongkong and Macao." As to the establishment of these stations we read; " Although there was some grumbling at first when the colonists found their cabbages and turnips even were chi duty, the! explanation that the customs merely were establishing the system and levying duties on expensive vegetable articles of food was accepted without question." In dealing with the question from a more serious point of view, Mr. Alabaster points out that, as far as; regards Canton at least, the effect of the new opium regulation is to increase the import duty from Tls. 30 to Tls. 110, and the working of this is not to be disposed of in a sentence. At the first look, the figures are satisfactory, the returns showing an import into Canton of 7,701 piculs for 1887 against 1,069 in 1886; the increase being due to. the supposed entire prevention of smuggling, But a late commissioner of customs at Canton shewed on seemingly good grounds that the normal consumption at Canton was 2,000 chests a month, instead of i than 1,000, and 7 Te-mains to explain the discrepancy. Thera is no apparent falling off in the habit of opium smoking, nor could Mr. Alabaster find that the native opium was taking the place of foreign drug to an increased extent. He ventures one or two suggestions. One is and it is a very reasonable one—that when opium was smuggled into Canton without pay-
able to send it into the interior to long ing either duty or likin, it was profit-distances, even—to his certain knowledge—as far as Hankow; but there is no longer any inducement to do this, now that the imposts on the drug are uniform at all the ports. Another suggestion is based on the fact that "the preventive service in China is absolutely inefficient, I might say, save as to the neighbourhood of Hongkong, non-existent;" and it is that opium may be transferred at sea from the steamers coming up from the South into junks, before it ever reaches the ken of Custom house officials, and I think it very probable that it is so, for the amount of duty being 25 per cent. ad valorem, and the risk of capture certainly not one in ten, smuggling opium is, if illegitimate, a very suto and profitable business."
There is another point of view, far more important, of this matter, on which Mr. Alabaster writes with his usual acumen. 'The establishment of the foreign customs was a great boon to Peking, as it provided the capital with revenue on which it could rely, but it took away considerably from' the incomes of the local officials, and " a ly led to the imposition of likin." new opium regulation is having a similar effect, and here we cannot do better than quote Mr. Alabaster's own words:—A proportion of the collection is, it is true, handed at the moment to the local government, but for that amount they must account and strictly; while under the old system, while trade escaped more lightly, there was an opening for obtaining funds for necessary but unauthorised expenditure which no longer exists. The central government is beginning to see that its officers, though their office gives them facilities for making fortunes, are underpaid, unless they take advantage of those facilities, but it is only begin. ning to see it; and so long as salaries
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.