65 
PRODUCTION IN FORMOSA. 
The following is extracted from the Foreign Office Report on 
Trade in Japan for 1897. (Misc. Series, 440, pp. 71-72.) 
The trade in camphor will probably undergo some modification. 
Camphor trees are not found in that part of the island (of Formosa) 
qup by Chinese settlers. They occur only in the country of 
e aborigines, or upon th e UE dep and up to the present 
dito the destruction of trees has been carried on gps the most 
money to the savage chiefs for permission to cut down het The 
stills were erected at the expense of the foreigners, who paid a 
tax of 8 dol. a still to the epar authorities, and a local tax 
of 10 dol. on éách picul (133 lbs.) of camphor produced. When 
the pix was ceded to the nn ho privileges which foreigners 
had oyed under Chi rule, of having these camphor 
ee diis in the tee seemed likely to be withdrawn by 
the Japanese Government. The Chinese treaty, much more than 
the Japanese, gives freedom of travel and trade to the foreigner ; 
and if the limitations zn c our treaty with Japan vee en 
strictly enforced in Formosa, foreigners would have had t 
to the treaty ports. They would have been debarred from distilling 
or purchasing camphor in the interior, and they would 
suffered heavy losses in abandoning the capital Auer sunk eg 
Considering that the present treaty had only two more years to 
run, the Japanese Government has consented to let matters remain 
in statu quo; and when hier the new treaty, geb quu obtain 
a right to settle anywhere in the interior, they wi able to 
distil as much as they like. But there is also a probability that 
the preparation of camphor will be made a Government monopoly. 
With the Formosan supply under its control the Japanese Govern- 
ment could almost secure a monopoly of the camphor trade, for 
E and Formosa are almost the only ee of supply ; and 
advantage may be taken of this to put For s finances on à 
satisfactory basis. The lands where the ee see grow 
not privately owned as is the best portion of Formosa’s fertile 
plains, so the Government could appropriate the a. pro- 
ducing distriets without rn with vested interests 
The following further information isgiven in the Report on the 
Trade of Tainan for 1897 (Foreign Office Annual, 2149, pp. 5-6) :— 
The camphor trade has, so far as concerns foreign er in 
South Formosa, almost kra stopped, owing, other 
causes, to the disturbed state of the country and the diffculty and 
danger of sending money into the camphor pues The roads 
continued throughout the year to be infested wi robbers 
who, on the approach of the military or polis. fled | to the hills 
(where it was, apparently, impossible to pursue eger only to 
reappear at the first favourable opportunity. Robberies became 
of such frequent occurrence that no foreign or native echan 
would venture to send money into the interior. e Japanese 
expedire on their part, did not see their hind to allow the tax 
to n the treaty port on arrival of the camphor, and busi- 
ness was Goa tensity brought to a standstill, 
