in India of Into has considerably deere sed, owing to the doubling of the duty. Govern= ment cannot possibly restrict the sale of liquor entirely, but they em and must do their utmost to see that bad liquor is nut sold; for even small quantities of bd Tiquor do_an incalculable amount of harm. The Indian peasant, on the whole, very temperate, his favourite drugs being "opium, hemp, and teddy, which latter is made from the fruit of the palm tree. Te ix curious to note that while the consumption of liquors and various drugs has been markedly the decrease, the ares of opium now under cultivation ix markedly on the increase, and several attempts at smuggle opiam' show the necessity This is a matter which eamnot be dismissed lightly, and requires the utmost care. In fact, Government have come to the conclusion that it will he advisable to slightly Jower the duty on the sale of liu r. The official sale of opium in the current year will probably fall, as all discount on opiam has now been abolished.
INDIAN BANKING CAPITAL, It is surprising to real that the Basking capital in India' only amounts to 10 per cent of the value of the exports and imports, against 32 per contin Bogland. But when' we consider that Englnd has the funds of New Yor', Berlin, and Paris available and that the above estimate of the Indian capital does not include the capital of the Sowear (native money Tender and banker), which is xt least ten times greater, it does not seem so astovishing. Yeh it is strange that within the last two years two Banks have either liquitaed or failed, owing to the fluctuating stave of the money market. One day it is overflowing, the next it is a-amed to the core, which naturally prevents a steady demand for money and a steady flow of capital, he no. steady employment for the funds is available. A reason for this is the system adopted by the Govern-iment of i in collecting Reve ne. The fact of the sovereign having been made legal tender has already done something steady to the money market, and it ie hoped that before Jong a further pin will be devised by Gorernment to control its fluetustions still more.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.