Asheville daily citizen., 1894-10-12
cANADA's OPIUM BUSINESS


states FOR Its support.
The manufacture of opium is one OF
the most profitable industries of British
Columbia, us it employees some 100 OF
500 men in making charcoal, which is
used exclusively for cooking purposes,
in addition to the cooks and other elr
ployes. The Canadian license fox the
manufacture of opium is 500 a year.
The government, in addition to pro.
viding employment for large number
Of people, and besides bringing into
the country great amount of money
from the United States, derive neat
little revenue each year, all al t..c ex-
penSe of the United States.
The development and manufacture
of opium is an interesting study. The
Chinese are the greatest consumers in
the world. Next to that race come the
Burmese and the inhu ubitants of the
straits of Malacca, the latter consum-
ing opium to the value of el.000,O00
annually. The cultivation of the
poppy, from which a juice is extracted
and subsequently reduced by boiling
until it becomes a liquid resembling
molasses, when it is termed refined
opium, is carried on in many parts of
Asia, Persia, Turkey, and some parts
of China. The chief district. is along
the Ganges river, India, and embraces
an area 600 miles long by 200 miles in
width, and is divided into two districts,
Behar and Benares. The cities OF
Patna and Gazepore are the principal
depots or shipping points, where the
factories for making crude opium are
situated. The producers are required
to sell their product to the Indian gov
ernment. which in turn supplies the
great Chinese importing houses. Be-
fore the fields of India were developed
opium came from Turkey and Persia,
and was used for medicinal purposes
for the reason that it contained more
than 10 per cent. of morpha, quality
that is too rich for smoking: opium
used for the latter purpose contains
about per cent.
The method by which opium is man
ufactured is interesting to observe. al
though sickening odor pcrvadrS the
atmosphere and will cause novice to
become deathly i'll. The balls OF crude
opium are slit open, moistcncd with
water and boiled to Il paste. This
paste is dried, rcmoiStcncd and again
boiled, after which it is strained 1t
goes through this process several times.
each time being carefully strained and
all foreign substance removed until il
has rich brown color. The drug is
boiled in large hemisphcrical brass
pans about 20 inches in diameter The
other utensils consist of bamboo ill
ter, Sprinklers, straincrs and pots.
When it is properly boiled down it IS
sealed up in brass tins containing six
ounces each. The factories in China
can manufacture a better quality of
opium for $50 less a pound than the
factories on the Pacific coast. A good
opium cook in China is paid SlOa month
and at Victoria $40 month, \ days
work consists Of refining t@o and
half balls of crude opium, each ball
making iivc-tacl cans of prepared
opium. For each additional ball refined
it is customary to pay the cook 80
cents.
The evil habit of opium smoking has
obtained such power over the Chinese
and some classes of white people in the
United States that it is physical i'm
possibility to wholly stop the importa-
tion and use of the drug, and the next
best measure. il seems is to adopt
some legislation that will check the
growth of the habit ana at the same
time not defraud the government of a
revenue that it is justly entitled to re-
ceive. and which heretofore has mostly
gone into the private purses of the
smu%glcrs of the Pacific northwest
Seattle Post-lntelligenccr.