As I previously reported a great quantity of opium is being cultivated in the Tongan district. The people in this neighbourhood last year paid the ordinary tax of $15 per 1,000 plants; but as they did not make much out of the business on account of this heavy taxa~ tion, and being of a rather tur-bu lent disposition, they have agitated for, and secured, a reduction of the tax to $8 per 1,000 plants. The poppy heads are now being incised, and the opium collected therefrom.
Fields of white and variegated poppies are everywhere to be seen in the island of Quemoy. The people here are of much more submissive temperament than_ those above mentioned in the Tongan district, and are paying the full amount of the tax. In consequence of the prolonged drought we have had, the yield is very small. The people who have cultivated opium are finding it to be a losing business, though the officials are expecting to collect from $50,000 to $100,000 in revenue from this source.
Pexinc, March 7.—According to a foreign telegram from Haiphong, Tang Chi-yao left that place for Hongkong yesterday.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.