'There is one disappointing feature in the provincial régime—opium is the main source of revenue; and whereas formerly only those cultivating the plant were required to pay. the tax, now it is decreed that all farmers' must pay, as the re-fare barely sufficient—if not it to meet expen If were changed, it jonable; government must be financed; but it is (throughout the province) called "the opium tax" or levy; and in at east one hsien district the payment.
required in kind, silver being fused, But I suspect that this may be a local device for getting more profit for the district headmen. In that distelet there are some men who have been persuaded to give up cultivating opium; to require them: to pay the tax on opium, is of course: putting a premium on: cultivation, And yet, only yesterday I passed by "the bureau for devising means of suppressing opium" a government office, not merely an anti-opium society. Of course this constant, civil warfare is, in the main, ree sponsible, One is almost tempted to despair of the curse ever being abolished.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.