Lam glad to say this colony is not among the countries that take their postage stamps with a view to making a revenue from the sale to collectors. We are not constantl plagued with new issues, and leave well alone. Owing, however, to a forgery of the one dollar isto, that stamp has been with. drawn from circulation, and the. postal authorities have now surcharged the two dollar sage green "stamp duty" stamp with the value "one dollar" in English and also in Chinese characters.
'THE HONGKONG OPIUM FORA, I sec that the Hongkong Government have called for sealed tenders for the sole privilege of preparing opium and selling it within the colony for three years comment cing with the Ist of March, 1898. This is the only Farm, except the privilege of quarrying granite, which is craneed in this Pree Trade colony, and though many officials do not like it, on account of the extra trouble, I doubt the policy of even farming out this privilege. Why should not the Government boil and prepare the opium. itself, s and secure whatever profits there may be in the trade? The opium Farmer does many things which are not quite according to Cocker, and which lead to a certain amount of friction among the: Chinese. The eximent of boiling the opium has already en tried by the Government with a fair amount of success, and I don't think that they would lose money if they resumed the practice,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.