In Burma it is smoked, and the quantity im •rted has greatly increased, even more rapidly han the population. The consumption there of 869 was doubled in 1879, while the population if 1868-69 was 2,395,985, and in 1878-79 it was 1,088,902. There is a continuous flow of imtni ;Tants from China (the Chinese in 1881 numbered 1,314), and their use of the opium pipe is ithout any bad results. Amongst the Burmese, owever, the demoralization, misery, and ruin roduced by opium-smoking presents a painful icture. The Chinese in Burma are diligently ngaged in all the avocations of life. The Bur iese, at all times indolent and averse to regular ibour, can support themselves by working one ay in three, and they have been unable to resist ae temptation.
In the British settlement of Singapore, owing the high rate of wages, and the prevalence of a hinese population, the consumption is at the rate :about 330 grains a year for each person. In Iva, where the Chinese do not compose above ae in a hundred of the population, and where wages are comparatively low, it does not exceed 40 grains. In China, 3Ir. Brereton estimated that, in 1881, out of a population of 400,000,000 the opium - smokers were 3,000,000. Of these, the smokers of foreign opium aro esti mated at 1,000,000. The total value of the opium smoked is £25,000,000 sterling, viz. Indian, £16,800,000; Chinese, 18,400000. At these estimates, the smokers of foreign opium spend 11d. per man daily, and the smokers of Chinese opium 2Id. daily.
Sir Robert Hart's introductory note to the reports and statistics on opium and opium-smoking says In round numbers, the annual importation of foreign opium may be said to amount to 100,000 chests, or, allowing 100 cadet; to each cheat, 10,000,000 cattics (the catty is the Chinese pound ; one catty is equal to one pound and a third avoir dupois). ' When boiled down and converted into what is known'as " prepared opium," the raw drug loses about 30 per cent. in weight ; accordingly, 10,000,000 catties of the unprepared drug im ported reach the hands of retailers as, say, 7,000,000 catties of prepared opium. The catty is divided into 16 Bang (ounces), and the hang into tenths called mace ; in 7,000,000 catties there are, there fore, 1,120,000,000 mace of prepared opium for smokers. Before reaching the smoker, opium pats the Chinese Government import duty and likin taxes amounting to, say, 100 taels, and is then sold at, say, 800 taels of Chinese syceo or silver (13= 10 taels) per 100 cattics ; thus the total quantity retailed—i.e. imported—may be said to be paid for with 56,000,000 tads, or £16,800,000, and one mace of prepared opium is consequently worth, say, about aid. (English). Divided by the
number of days in the year, the quantity of pre pared opium smoked daily may be said to be 3,068,413 mace, and the value 11,046,573d. or £46,027. Average smokers consume three mace of prepared opium, and spend about lOid. This quantity is the same as 6-15ths of an ounce avoirdupois, and suffices for from 30 to 40 pipes whiffs, draws, or inhalations. If we divide the total number of mace consumed daily by the total quantity each average smoker consumes daily, we find that there arc in round numbers above 1,000,000 smokers of foreign opium. The popula tion of China is spoken of as amounting to more than 400,000,000, and may fairly be pronounced to be something above 300,000,000. Estimating the population at 300,000,000, and opium-smokers at 1,000,000, and proceeding with the calcula tion, the result is that 3i in every 1000 smoke, —that is, that opium - smoking is practisedby one-third of ono per cent. of the population. In addition to the foreign drug, there is also the native product. Reliable statistics cannot be obtained respecting the total quantity pro duced. Ieliang, the port nearest Sze-cbuen, the province which is generally believed to be the chief producer and chief consumer of native opium, estimates the total production of native opium at 25,000 chests annually ; while another port, Niugpo, far away on the coast, estimates it at 265,000 chests. Treating all such replies as merely so many guts, there are, it is to be re marked, two statements which may be taken as facts in this connection : the one is that, so far as we know to-day, the native opium produced does not exceed the foreign import in quantity ; and the other, that native opium was known, produced, and used long before any Europeans began the sale of the foreign drug along the coast. Grant ing, then, that the native product equals the foreign import, and that 100,000 chests are pro duced annually, and granting also that this quan tity, when prepared, provides 1,120,000,000 mace of prepared opium for the annual consumption of 1,000,000 additional smokers, the number of opium-smokers in China may be said to be in all 2,000,000, or two-thirds of one per cent. of the population. The native product sells for one-half the price obtained for The foreign drug, and may be estimated to be paid for with, say, £8,400,000 by 1,000,000 smokers, who spend about 51d. a piece daily. The total amount spent by China on this luxury produced at home and imported from abroad is thus, say, £25,000,000 annually.