82
Extracted from the Dictionary of
PAPAVER
Excise Regulations, and
somniferum.
ADMINISTRA- extensive, far more so than with any other single article of Indian Com-
TION :merce. Should occasion ever arise, therefore, to prohibit that traffic, the
Revenue.
loss to the cultivators would be the least important item that would have
to be considered ; for no administration would be justified in bringing ruin
to a large mercantile community by any sudden and arbitrary interference
with a trade which it has hitherto protected and legalized. The amounts
of Malwa and other opiums purchased by Government are very small, so
that it is fairly safe to say that Government paid, for the past five years,
an average of, say, 2½ million pounds sterling for the opium grown in
British territory. The value of the opium crop to the cultivators within
British territory is thus by no means inconsiderable, but the saving in
taxation effected by the profits of the trade is by far its most important
feature. But there are other considerations. By taking the traffic under
direct supervision the Government is enabled most effectualy to check
the abuses that would otherwise prevail and have prevailed. A pure
article is furnished in place of an adulterated one. To the cultivators the
crop is by no means unimportant. It is not represented by dividing the
amounts shown as annually paid by Government by the returned acreage.
he crop occupies the field for but a short period. The system of poppy
cultivation enriches the soil so that ahother crop may be taken off it at a
nominal cost. The cultivator has the poppy seed and other bye-products
of the opium crop as an additional source of income. Opium production
is therefore highly remunerative.
EXCISE REGULATIONS AND THE CONSUMPTION OF
OPIUM IN INDIA.
Opium
Repeated reference has been made in the foregoing chapters to the
consumed in India. consumption of opium in India. In connection with the HISTORY of the
drug, it has been shown that, long before the British conquests, the practice
of using opium was widely diffused throughout the country. It would be
beside the scope of this work to deal with the moral aspects of the traffic
or the perniciousness or otherwise of the habit of opium indulgence. The
fact that opium eating, drinking, or smoking existed in the country, neces--
sitated supervision and control. For many years now, it has been the habit
to vest local Governments with the management of all forms of Excise
Administration, and opium is, therefore, a Provincial revenue. A large
BENGAL OPIUM. proportion of the opium used in India is specially prepared at Patna and
Benares under the name of" Excise Opium " ; it is issued at cost price to
the local Governments and Administrations. From the district authorities
it is issued to the licensed dealers on payment of the excise dues. But in
certain parts of India locally-grown opium is used, or specially selected
Malwa opium takes the place of the " Excise Opium " of the Bengal
Agencies. The table given at page 81 shows the total excise net reve
-nue from opium, but, as exhibiting in some degree the relative consump
-tion in each province, the analysis of the returns for ten years. given on
the next page, may be cited. That table will be observed to be an
elaboration of the information furnished at page 40. The three most
important consuming provinces of Excise Opium may be said to be
Burma, Assam, and Bengal. Perhaps the most noticeable feature of the
Indian provincial consumption is the increasing traffic with Burma, a fact
which is doubtless largely due to Chinese influence and Chinese immigration.
It would, however, appear from other than purely statistical evidence that
the Sikhs are the community of India most addicted to the use of opium,
and they are certainly not an effeminate and emaciate race. The moderate
indulgence authorised by religion and habit does not appear to be more
injurious to them than the moderate use of wine or tobacco is in Europe.