December,  ?92a™' }      CampkoT  Ifidustry  in  Foochow.  925 
tail.  The  effect  is  to  distil  from  the  oil  all  the  remaining  camphor; 
133  pounds  of  oil  produce  64  pounds  of  camphor  and  27  pounds  of 
desolated  oil.  The  camphor  derived  from  oil  is  of  a  cheaper  grade 
than  that  derived  originally  from  the  wood  chips.  The  desolated 
oil  is  used  as  a  base  for  dyes  and  paints. 
There  are  1 2  of  these  distilleries  in  Foochow  which  produce  cam- 
phor from  the  oil.  They  are  known  as  the  Yuan  Cheng,  Hsing  Chi, 
Cheng  Chi,  Hsiang  Chi,  Fu  Sheng,  Hsieh  Chi,  Kao  Fang,  and  Tao 
Ho— all  Chinese;  Ting  Te — Portuguese;  and  Mitsui  Bussan  Kaisha 
and  Tai  Hua — Japanese.  When  working,  each  distillery  produces 
on  an  average  of  325  pounds  of  camphor  a  day. 
The  Government  Camphor  Bureau. — The  various  districts  pro- 
ducing camphor  have  each  an  official  camphor  bureau  under  the 
control  of  the  Provincial  Commissioner  of  Industry.  Each  bureau 
has  the  authority  to  collect  within  the  district  it  covers  certain  taxes 
and  to  buy  camphor  trees  and  distil  camphor.  In  American  currency 
the  tax  is  approximately  $6  on  every  133  pounds  of  camphor  in 
transit.  The  taxes  collected  and  the  camphor  produced  are  sent 
to  another  Government  bureau  called  the  Fukien  Government 
Camphor  Industry,  Transportation,  and  Tax  Collection  Office. 
Its  duties  are  to  take  in  and  turn  over  to  the  provincial  government 
the  taxes  remitted  by  the  various  district  bureaus  and  to  take  in 
and  market  the  camphor  received. 
There  is  still  a  third  bureau  which  has  authority  to  buy  camphor 
oil  and  distil  it  into  camphor,  marketing  its  product  independently. 
Private  producers  must  take  out  licenses  and  agree  to  pay  the 
taxes  herein-before  mentioned.  There  is  also  a  license  fee  of  $2  local 
currency  per  month  per  vat. 
Foreigners  wishing  to  go  or  send  into  the  interior  to  purchase 
camphor  under  what  is  known  as  the  "transit  pass"  system,  per- 
mitted by  treaty,  may  still  do  so.  Under  this  system  the  foreign 
exporter  may  bring  the  native  product  to  the  seaboard  and  export  it 
to  a  foreign  country  by  paying  the  regular  5  per  cent,  export  duty 
plus  a  surtax  of  half  the  export  duty.  The  foreigner  may  purchase 
either  from  the  private  producers  or  from  the  Government  bureau. 
The  effect  of  the  Government  bureau  system  is  to  tax  the  product 
just  the  same,  because  the  foreigner  may  not  operate  his  own  dis- 
tillery in  the  interior,  and  Government  taxes  are  imposed  on  the 
distillery  and  its  product  before  the  foreigner  purchases  the  camphor. 
Japanese  distillers  operating  in  the  city  of  Foochow  are  not 
