ON THE HABITUAL U*E OT OPIUM 
60 
CHAPTER IX. 
THE EXTENT OF TlfE EVIL OF OPIUM SMOKING IN SINGAPORE. 
In the first part of this Chapter I will endeavour to arrive at the 
most probable extent of the evil of opium smoking, a task which is 
attended with some difficulty from the foolish suspicions of the opium 
Farmer, which lead him to fancy from my enquiries that I wish to 
obtain all the information I can, previous to renting the Farm myself. 
Nothing will make him believe the contrary, so that although called 
upon by the Hon’ble the Resident Councillor, to give me all the in¬ 
formation in his power, except that touching the private affairs of the 
farm, he prefers to distort the truth rather than refuse the request of 
the Hon'ble the Resident Councillor and has given me statements, 
which if I credited, would lead me far astray. His purpose, acting 
on the idea mentioned, is to make the expenditure necessary to carry 
on the Farm, very great, and the quantity of opium sold very small, 
so that a clear loss must be the result. For instance he gave me as 
the quantity of opium consumed for 1845, 94|- chests, retailing which 
at % 1. 40 a tael (or I£ oz.) would be % 116,424 as his gross in¬ 
come, bis expenditure being for Rent of Farm about 9,000 ~f- 
mensem, and the value of the opium ^56,700, making the total an¬ 
nual expenditure 64,700, leaving a balance against him of ^48, 
324, in addition to the expences of the establishment &c. Seeing 
how false these statements were and how fruitless would be the at¬ 
tempt to extract any correct information from him, I threw him 
entirely overboard; and will endeavour to show by other data the ex¬ 
tent of opium smoking in Singapore. By means of the annual sale 
of the Opium Farm, we will have a pretty good idea of the progress 
of opium smoking. The farm was established in 1820, but the first 
registered sale was in 1822. 
1822-23 Opium Farm rented monthly at ^1,615 
1823-24 
33 
>.) 
2,960 
1824-25 
*3 
)} 
1,925 
1825-20 
7). 
2,032 
