668 



OPIUM QUESTION. 



OREGON. 



by Sir Rutherford Alcock in 1871, but was 

 rejected in London. The Chefoo convention, 

 concluded between Sir Thomas Wade and Li- 

 Hung-Chang in 1876, promised, in return for 

 the opening of the four new treaty ports, that 

 opium imports should remain in bond until all 

 dues were paid. As this would have permitted 

 China to restrict the traffic by increasing the 

 local dues, the agreement was not ratified by 

 the British Government. 



The efforts of the Chinese authorities to sup- 

 press the native cultivation of the poppy have 

 been as fitful and ineffectual as those directed 

 against the smugglers. The task is much more 

 formidable than it would be to check the imports 

 if their hands were freed; but considerable 

 progress has been made of late years. Up to 

 1848 the cultivation was restrained with toler- 

 able success. Subsequently, and particularly 

 after the Tientsin treaty, the laws fell into 

 desuetude. The policy was actually contem- 

 plated of encouraging the native cultivation 

 until the Indian drug was driven from the 

 market, and then crushing out the home pro- 

 duction. The cultivation was probably ex- 

 tending in Western China and Manchooria, but 

 of late years honest and energetic administra- 

 tors like Tso, Shen, Pao-Chin, Tseng, and Yien 

 have cleared large districts of the plant. Tsu 

 Tsung-tang has reported that the poppy has 

 been banished from the northwest. In like 

 manner more frequent attempts have been 

 made to enforce the laws against consumption, 

 .and thousands of shops have been closed within 

 two or three years. But if a habit so preva- 

 lent, and an interest on which so many depend 

 for livelihood, could be suddenly suppressed 

 in any country, it would be most difficult in 

 that immense, loosely -jointed empire, where 

 central government is only a fiction, where 

 the provincial governors and chief officials of 

 the empire follow independent policies in the 

 present interregnum, where they are glad if 

 they can gather the taxes without driving the 

 people to revolt, and where the administrative 

 machinery is very imperfect and the officers 

 ill-paid and scandalously venal. 



The abolition of the Chinese opium-trade 

 would entail serious difficulties in the govern- 

 ment of India. There remains too little now 

 of the enormous revenue drained from the in- 

 digent population of India by barbarous taxes 

 discarded in all free countries, after the rapa- 

 cious hierarchy of officials and the great gar- 

 rison of soldiers by which British rule is main- 

 tained have been provided for, to return any 

 satisfactory equivalent in public improvements 

 of which the need is crying, and the schemes 

 already matured, even with the opium revenue, 

 which amounts to 17 or 18 per cent of the 

 total. This forced contribution from China 

 has increased from $10,000,000 in 1843-'44 to 

 $42,000,000 in 1880-'81. It has supplied $672,- 

 000,000 of net revenue in the last twenty years. 

 The extension of opium-culture in China has 

 not caused the importations to decline ; the 



aggregate net revenue of the decade 1871-'81 

 has exceeded that of the preceding decade by 

 about $60,000,000. The Chinese Government 

 also raises a revenue from the import duty, 

 which is fixed by the treaty legalizing the 

 trade, and from internal transit dues, which 

 some estimate at $7,500,000 a year. 



OREGON". The State officers chosen at the 

 election on the first Monday in June, and in- 

 augurated on September 13th, were Z. F. Moo- 

 dy, Governor; R. P. Earhart, Secretary of 

 State; Edward Hirsch, Treasurer; E. B. Mc- 

 Elroy, Superintendent of Public Instruction; 

 State Printer, W. H. Byars; Supreme Court 

 Judge, W. P. Lord. The other Judges of the 

 Supreme Court are Edward B. W T atson and John 

 B. Waldo ; State Librarian, S. H. Condon. 



FINANCES. The receipts of the State Treas- 

 ury were as follows : 



From the four-mill tax, 1881 $193,932 61 



From the four-mill tax. 1882 287.03091 



From the earnings of the Penitentiary 11,054 25 



From delinquent taxes 1,683 79 



From private insane 2,716 07 



From sale of stamps 4,651 9 



From sale of books 346 15 



Miscellaneous sources 803 50 



This, with balance on hand September 1, 1880. . . 57,794 26 



Amounts to a total of $510,013 13 



The current expenses during the fiscal years 

 1881 and 1882 amount to about $400,000, thus 

 leaving a balance of $110,000 in the Treasury. 



The general bonded indebtedness of the State 

 includes the soldiers' bounty bonds, the soldiers' 

 relief bonds, the bonded debt arising out of the 

 Indian difficulties of 1878, known as the Uma- 

 tilla Indian war, and the bonded debt created 

 by the act approved October 25, 1880, to com- 

 plete the payment of the Modoc war bonds. 



The soldiers 1 bounty bonds and soldiers' re- 

 lief bonds are in the same condition they were 

 at the close of the fiscal year 1880, except that 

 the time when the State will be entitled to re- 

 deem them, in accordance with the terms upon 

 which they were issued, is so much nearer at 

 hand, though it continues two years yet. The 

 requisite funds have for a long time been in the 

 Treasury, with which to pay them off, but the 

 holders could not be compelled to receive pay- 

 ment, and, as it appears, preferred to retain 

 them as an investment. 



The bonded debt arising out of the Umatilla 

 Indian war is yet outstanding, except so far as 

 it has been affected under the provisions of 

 said act approved October 25, 1880, entitled 

 u An act to refund the war debt and maintain 

 the public credit, and appropriate money and 

 levy a tax therefor." 



At the last-mentioned date there was out- 

 standing a bonded indebtedness known as " the 

 Modoc war bonds," which amounted to $132,- 

 858.72, with certain accrued interest thereon. 

 By the provisions of said last-mentioned act the 

 State Treasurer was authorized to sell the bonds 

 of the State of Oregon to such an amount as, 

 with the surplus moneys not otherwise appro- 

 priated, which had or might accrue from the 



